The girl in the video
by A-Karana
Summary: Burned human remains, lots of music videos of a young girl and a boss who isn't herself anymore...
1. Chapter 1

Thanks to Kim for betaing.

And this chapter was written in November so there's no way I could know about the M.J. thing...

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**Chapter 1: I'll be there**

"Wow, someone really wanted that person dead," Hodgins said when he saw the burned bone- fragments on the table on the platform. It looked more like a pile of black rocks than human bones and they still smelled of fire. Beside the table where the bones lay, sat several containers with earth that needed to be sifted for smaller bone fragments and a tray with soil samples. An evidence bag with a backpack in it lay on another table, the contents of it spread out beside it.

"I think it's more likely that someone wanted to prevent that the victim from being identified and was very thorough in his attempt," Brennan corrected him but Hodgins just kept grinning, shook his head and took a closer look at the bones, then the soil samples.

"What do we know so far?" Cam asked and took the file that Booth handed her when she arrived on the platform. She didn't open the file though but looked at Booth, who was leaning against the banister, knowing that he could tell her a summary much faster. While the others all wore their blue lab coats, Cam hadn't changed yet that morning and was still wearing a black pencil skirt and a burgundy sweater, her hair pulled back in a ponytail.

"Human remains found in a little neighborhood garden last night. Seems like the body was hacked up and then burned, we don't know yet with what exactly," he said and gave Cam a once-over, stopped when he found what had irritated him. She was incredibly tall that day, but when he saw the four-inch heels she wore he knew why. He raised his eyebrows, wondering why she wore those shoes for work. Sure, she always wore heels, but not _such _heels. _Who was the guy_, he wondered but she just grinned back at him and shook her head, signalized him that she wouldn't tell him what he wanted to know.

"I'm on it," Hodgins said in an answer to Booths summary and took a cotton swab from the table beside him so he would get the particulates and the ash off the bones and could analyze them.

"In a dumpster not too far away we found a backpack that was also burned, or at least one tried to burn it, but it was one of those fancy "they outlive you anywhere in the world" backpacks so one tried to get rid of it by throwing it in the trash," Booth went on and pointed to the lilac colored backpack. "Inside the backpack was a USB drive, an old newspaper and some pens. No notes, no purse, no cell phone," he finished.

"Any other indications who that might be?" Cam wanted to know and pointed to the remains.

"So far we don't even know yet if "that" is male or female," Booth sighed and crossed his arms in front of his chest, already annoyed with this case. Sometimes he just couldn't wrap his head around what people were able to do.

"Mr. Bray will assemble the bone fragments while I reconstruct the skull," Brennan said and picked up the biggest fragment from the table, the pubic bone, the only bone still intact. "But the pubic bone suggests that the victim is female, hasn't given birth yet," she went on squinting at the bone.

"Can you give me an age or an age range at least?" Booth asked and pulled out his notepad and a pen.

"At this point I would say young, early twenties to mid twenties," Brennan replied.

"Ok, so Hodgins will analyze the particulates, you two have enough work with the bone fragments and I will see if I can get any tox- results from what is left. Angela, maybe you should take a look at the USB drive, hopefully that will get us something," Cam decided.

"It's burned and melted, but I can try," Angela shrugged and took the Petri- dish with the USB drive on it.

"Ok," Cam nodded; pleased that everyone had something to do and they would hopefully have some results soon. She wanted to walk off when Booth stopped her.

"How's your dad doing?" he asked referring to her two-week absence because her father had had a heart attack and she had looked after him.

"Good, better. It wasn't like he really needed me there in the first place, but you know how my Aunt Sally is," she relied and rolled her eyes.

"How old is she now? 110?" Booth grinned, obviously knowing what she was talking about.

"Oh god, don't let her hear that. She's 78 now, dresses like 30 and acts like 18," she laughed.

"So nothing changed," he laughed with her.

"No, nothing changed," she shook her head and for a second that strange look came over her face that she always got when she thought about her family. Was it pain? Regret? It was the usual look she got whenever she remembered her mother, Booth knew. He had never met her but from what he had been told Cam and her mother had been very close and her sudden death had been extremely hard for her oldest daughter.

"Felicia is still picking on you, your dad watches TV all day long, your grandma isn't speaking to you and aunt Sally is the drama queen that brings home the young studs," he summed it up with a smile and hoped he would distract her from the painful memory of losing her mother.

"Exactly," she nodded with a pained expression, but the humor was back in her eyes.

"Why is your grandmother not talking to you?" Angela asked curiously while she cleaned the USB drive carefully with a cotton swab and some water.

"That's the big family secret, no one knows," Booth said jokingly.

"Ok, ok, I'll tell you so you finally shut up," Cam said with a lecturing glance in Booth's direction. "When I was sixteen I stole money from her to buy a record I really wanted. Ever since then she thinks I am not trustworthy," she confessed and everybody laughed.

"What record was it?" Angela wanted to know curiously.

"Bad," Cam smiled.

"Michael Jackson," Booth nodded and did something that was supposed to be the moonwalk, but failed miserably what made Brennan only raise her eyebrows.

"Speaking of teenagers: How is Michelle?" Hodgins wanted to know and Cam was a bit surprised by his question.

"Good. A bit scared by my extended family now, but good," she answered and took another file from the desk by the computer. "I'm in my office if anyone needs me," she said then and left the platform.

~*~

"Hey you," Angela said later that day when she walked into the bone-room where Wendell was working. "How's it going?" she asked. He was squinting at a bone he held between his index finger and thumb up into the light.

"It's hard. There are thousands of Bones fragments and I can't clean them yet because Hodgins hasn't given his ok," he sighed and turned a bone fragment the size of a quarter from one side to the other, then placed it where the other "spine" fragments lay. "Did you need something?" he asked when she just stood there and watched him, hands buried in the pockets of her lab coat.

"I thought we could spend lunch break together," she replied and her voice got that silky undertone that gave away only too easily what she had in mind and it had nothing to do with "lunch". When she came to him, slung her arms around his neck and smiled at him seductively it was hard to resist.

"You know I would love to, but the rules Dr. Saroyan set are pretty clear on that and I'd hate to lose my job here," he replied, reminding her of the no-making-out-rule Cam had introduced after Hodgins had found them kissing in her office. To say that he had freaked out was an understatement and after a speech about being a team, Cam had applied the new rules.

"You're no fun," she pouted and let her arms drop to her sides.

"She has a point. My jaw still hurts where Jack punched me," he shrugged but looked apologetic.

"Jack is fine with us now, we even all went out together the other night," she told him, not willing to give up that easily.

"Talk to Dr. Saroyan about the rules," he replied then stopped and started to grin. "Or we could just go to this small hotel a few minutes from here," he got an idea.

"Oh, I like that idea," Angela smiled brightly and slung her arms back around his neck and kissed him.

"People, what did I tell you? You want me send Hodgins in so he can punch your lights out again?" Cam's voice suddenly came from behind Angela and they quickly broke apart.

"We were just discussing lunch break plans," Angela said sheepishly while Wendell blushed.

"I hope they either include eating food or a room far, far away from the institute," Cam replied with raised eyebrows and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I better get back to my video," Angela excused herself with a small smile and Cam turned to Wendell who was still staring on the floor.

"Anything new here besides lunch plans?" she asked him.

"From the cut marks on the bones I'd say someone sawed her in three big parts, hacked her up with a normal ax and then burned the remains," he replied and showed her some of the bones fragments under the magnifier.

"Have you found cause of death yet?" she asked and examined the bone shards.

"At the moment I'd say the saw and the ax are a pretty good guess," he shrugged.

"Ok, I'm gonna go and talk to Brennan and what she has so far," she nodded and walked to the door. She was nearly out when she stopped and turned back around. "Mr. Bray, I'm not doing this because I am opposed to you and Angela together. I applied those rules because I have to look out for the whole team. Hodgins is your friend and he still hasn't got over the break-up. Keep that in mind before you and Angela make out right in front of his eyes the next time," she said, couldn't just keep it to herself. Wendell only nodded and the thoughtful look on his face told her that maybe her little speech hadn't fallen on completely deaf ears. She still doubted though that Angela had got a hearing aid meanwhile, although it was absolutely needed.

~*~

For the rest of the day and the next they all worked more or less quietly and for themselves, each occupied with their own work. It was hard getting any results this time when everything was hacked into pieces and burned.

The morning of the third day Brennan was finally able to finish the reconstruction of the skull. Angela had been waiting for it because she couldn't do much while the computer was rendering to get the data of the burned USB drive.

~*~

"Dr. Saroyan, I found cause of death," Brennan said, entering Cam's office. She had just brought the skull to Angela and stopped by her boss on her way out, because Booth was already waiting for her, so they could interview the man who had found the remains.

"Oh, really? Great! What was it?" Cam said and looked up from her papers.

"A blow to the back of the head with a sharp object, most likely a fire ax or a machete," Brennan said and showed her the x-rays. Cam looked at them and scrunched up her face when she saw the large cleft on the back of the skull.

"Any progress on the rest of the body?" she wanted to know and placed the x-rays in the folder that contained the other things linked to the case.

"So far we have the complete skull, the right hand, parts of the back and the legs," Brennan replied and Cam nodded. "The bones of the hands show no signs of a struggle, no fractures," Brennan went on.

"Did she see the blow coming?" Cam wanted to know.

"No. Angela was able to show us the blow on the Angelator and by the angle it is unlikely that she saw it coming," Brennan shook her head.

"Killed with an ax, hacked up... the murderer sure liked his ax," Cam summed it up and used her humor to deal with the gruesomeness of human nature. For her it came down to sarcasm or empathy most of the time and she couldn't afford compassion very often. There was only so much she could take.

"I'm going to interview the man who found the remains with Booth now. I'll be back later," Brennan excused herself and was off and left Cam alone with her paperwork.

~*~

"Hey Bren?" Angela asked later the same day when she entered the office of her best friend.

"Angela?" the anthropologist looked up from the report she was writing.

"Just a quick question: The victim is Caucasian right?" she asked.

"Yes, did I forget to put it in the report?" she asked back.

"No, it's just that I don't get any hits of the missing persons data base, no matter what hair or eye color I insert," Angela said.

"Maybe no one reported her missing," Brennan replied logically.

"Everybody should be missed. And she was... beautiful, no matter what hair color I give her. Big eyes, high cheekbones, small nose, even facial structure," Angela said and became sentimental, like every time she had to deal with a very gruesome case.

"Maybe she was an illegal prostitute that someone got rid of," Cam's voice came from the door and she and Hodgins entered the lab.

"I can't help much on this case though, there's no flesh and all my analysis come out with zero results. The fire damaged too much," she shrugged apologetically in Angela's direction.

"And all I can say is that she was burned with ethyl alcohol, " he said to Angela who nodded.

"Anything on the USB drive yet?" Cam asked the artist.

"It's an 8GB USB drive and it's completely full with data. I am not sure how much I can recover though. Looks like its all video and sound files," Angela informed them.

"Porn?" Hodgins asked from behind with a grin on his face.

"How I missed your inappropriate comments, Hodgins," Cam said sarcastically but smiled.

"Good to know you missed me," he replied cheekily.

"I can see what we have so far," Angela said, now smiling as well about the banter. She walked into her office, Cam and Hodgins following her and clicked some buttons on her computer. "Looks like part of one video is restored," she said then and hit the play button. She looked at it without that the others could see it yet and wrinkled her forehead.

"When I did the facial reconstruction Brennan and I assumed that the victim was Caucasian, so I drew her that way and we didn't get any hits, no matter what hair or eye color I put in. I just talked to her about it. Now looking at the video I'd say she's mixed race. I think our victim just got a real face, although slightly younger. It was recorded in 1999," she replied and started the film, this time on the big screen so the other two could see it as well. She also turned on the sound.

A home video started showing an empty chair in a living room in front of a PC. The PC camera was one of the better ones but still the quality wasn't great. The camera swayed and music set in and a second later a teenager showed up and sat down in the chair. The girl was maybe 14, had long dark, curly hair and big blue eyes. It was hard to tell what nationality she had and the room behind her looked luxury but didn't give any indication where she could be. She wore jeans and a tight red T-shirt; her curls fell loosely over her shoulders.

"She's really good," Angela said just before the girl started singing _I'll be there_. She sounded young but she had an incredible voice and hit all the right notes, what seemed, effortlessly.

"She really is," Hodgins agreed and looked to Cam who had remained silent so far. He found her frozen next to him, her hands clutching the folder in her hands so hard her knuckles were white. "Cam?" he asked what provoked Angela's attention. She looked questioningly at him, then back at Cam. When her boss still wasn't reacting she placed a hand on her arm.

"Cam you're ok?" she asked and slowly Cam turned her head to look at her.

"The victim is not the girl in the video," she said with a toneless voice that scared Angela. She sounded convinced against better judgment and without any proof- Like she just needed to be right on this one.

"Her facial features match," Angela insisted softly, and eyed her boss warily, not sure why she was reacting so strangely.

That seemed to snap Cam out of her daze and frantically she opened the folder and flipped through it. When she found the picture she was looking for she held it with trembling hands and stared at the rendering Angela had done of the victim. In this picture the young woman still had straight, blonde hair.

Cam shook her head slowly from side to side then stilled, her eyes returned to the screen. Her mouth stayed slightly open while her eyes widened, her pupils dilated like she wanted to take in everything, understand what she was seeing, make sure she wasn't mistaken.

_I'll reach out my hand to you, I'll have faith in all you do. Just call my name and I'll be there_

That girl, those eyes, the curls, the smile on her face… Cam turned her head to the side, away from the screen and looked in the direction of the lab and the table there, knowing the remains were up there, in a state that made it hard to realize this had been a human being. Yet, it was her. The girl on the video. A young woman now. Burned. Hacked into pieces. Dead.

_I'll be there with a love that's strong. I'll be your strength, I'll keep holding on._

She looked back to the screen, her brain refusing to accept that the girl in the video was the victim out there, those remains. She didn't notice that her hands had started shaking, that her whole body was trembling until the folder she had held in her hands dropped to the floor, the papers falling out with a rustling sound. She looked down slowly before her eyes went back to the screen.

"Cam?" she heard Angela ask but it didn't register in her head that the artist was really talking to her. She couldn't process that information, couldn't react anymore. Her world seemed limited to the screen in front of her, the smile on the girls face, her voice in her ears. Dead.

_Togetherness, well that's all I'm after. Whenever you need me, I'll be there._

Suddenly the voice was gone, the smile froze- Angela had stopped the video.

Her eyes still glued to the screen Cam felt a pain in her chest unlikely anything she had ever felt before. She gasped in pain, felt like she was being ripped apart in the middle. Her breathing quickened and her left hand flew to her chest. She couldn't stand this pain, she couldn't breathe. She squeezed her eyes shut and the girl disappeared in front of her eyes. With one hand she tried to open the top button of her blouse but didn't succeed. She needed air. She felt a wave of nausea overtaking her, cold sweat broke out. Then the pain stopped and everything went black.

**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks again to Kim for betaing

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**Chapter 2: Because of you**

Hodgins who had been watching Cam was quick to react and caught her before she hit the floor.

"Oh my god," Angela screeched shocked, but quickly caught herself and took her stuff off her couch so Hodgins could place Cam there. Carefully he lay her down on the sofa and propped her legs up on a pillow. Angela meanwhile hurried to the sink and fetched a glass of tap water.

"Cam, hey, Cam. Come on, wake up!" Hodgins said and shook her lightly by the shoulders.

"Is she breathing?" Angela asked panicked.

"Yeah, she's just unconscious," Hodgins replied because he had already checked. "We should call a doctor anyway," he said and took the glass of water from his ex-fiancée.

"I call one," she said and hurried to her phone on her desk. Hodgins kept shaking Cam and was relieved when she opened her eyes after a few seconds.

"She's back," he told Angela with a relieved smile while the artist still talked to the emergency hotline of the Jeffersonian. "Welcome back," he grinned at Cam and had already several sentences in his head to tease her with. She was a coroner after all and suddenly she collapsed after seeing a video of a girl singing? Cam blinked slowly but didn't react in any way to him. She stared off into space, looking right through him and he waved one hand in front of her face without getting any reaction.

"They'll be here in a second," Angela told him when she came over to the couch. "Hey, how are you feeling?" she asked Cam when she saw that her eyes were open and she crouched down beside her. Angela's question remained unanswered and she looked from Cam to Hodgins whose forehead was wrinkled in worry by now.

"She's not reacting," he told her unnecessarily and they exchanged a worried look. He kept waving his hand over her face and tried to get her to react somehow, but she was staring right through him. He was more than relieved when the paramedics finally arrived and stepped aside.

"Hey what happened? I saw the paramedics rushing by my office," Brennan asked then when she entered and brought Booth and Sweets with her.

"Cam fainted while I was showing her the first video," Angela replied worried and watched how the paramedics checked on their boss.

"And now she's not reacting anymore," Hodgins finished the explanation what caused Booth to rush forward and kneel down beside the couch where his friend was still lying.

"Cam?" he asked and tried to get her attention. "Camille?" he tried again and touched her shoulder lightly. No reaction.

"Her heart rate is elevated and her pupils show a slow response," one of the doctors said.

"She's in shock," Sweets concluded.

"Yes, she is. Whatever happened caused a nervous breakdown," the guy nodded.

"Ok, then I've got this, I'm a psychiatrist," Sweets told them and they just nodded and left the office.

"What kind of video were you watching?" Booth turned accusingly to Angela and Hodgins.

"Nothing bad. I was able to recover the first video from the USB drive. It shows a teenager singing a song. The teen is most likely the victim," Angela replied defensively and watched how Booth stroked gently over Cam's hair.

"We watched it, she said that this could not be the victim, started to tremble and blacked out," Hodgins added and looked worriedly at cam.

"That is strange," Brennan shook her head. "Cam is a professional, she has seen hundreds of victims and now watching a video she faints? That doesn't sound reasonable."

"I agree. Cam wouldn't just faint like that. Maybe we should take her to a real doctor. What if there's a problem with her heart or her brain?" Booth asked and then turned back to Cam.

"Guys, I know you're upset and worried, I am too. But in can tell when a person has a nervous breakdown. And Dr. Saroyan is clearly in shock," Sweets insisted and walked up to Cam and looked at her.

"I never heard of a person fainting because of a shock," Hodgins protested.

"When the pain is too much to take the body shuts down, literally," Sweets explained.

"Some people hyperventilate when upset and that causes them to faint," Brennan provided another explanation, one that was less psychological.

"And what can we do now?" Angela wanted to know.

"Wait and keep an eye on her. At one point she'll come back. I mean, she woke up on her own, so that's something. She might fall asleep or just stare blankly ahead, but she'll come back. It might happen that she starts throwing up though, be disoriented, suffer from memory loss, hyperventilate again," Sweets listed and Booth scrunched up his face.

"I can look after her," Angela offered and sat down on the armrest of the couch.

"I think you should first sketch a new image of the girl with the new data," Hodgins replied.

"I agree. And Booth and I will question some more neighbors that had access to the park," Brennan nodded.

"I'll look after her, " Hodgins said and looked worriedly at Cam.

"And I will check the video meanwhile. Maybe I can find out what upset her so much," Sweets agreed and they all went and did what they had been told. Slowly Hodgins crouched down in front of Cam and looked at her for a moment. She was still pale, still had that far-away look on her face. He looked over his shoulder and glanced at Sweets and Angela on the other side of the room, where Angela was showing Sweets the video.

"You know we will find out who that girl is and who did this to her. We always do," he told Cam quietly, not even sure if she was hearing him. "I promise you." When her eyes filled with tears and they slowly ran down over her cheeks he got his answer.

~*~

Sweets had been right and after a few more minutes Cam was asleep. Hodgins grabbed a book from his lab before he was back by her side watching over her restless sleep. He moved the armchair closer to the couch so he could prevent her from falling off the couch. He had made it onto page twenty of his geology magazine when Sweets sat down on the table in front of him, looked at Cam for a moment and then turned to him.

"There's nothing on this video that would explain her panic. The background is blurred, there are no pictures visible and beside the girl, a chair and the outlines of what looks like a normal girls room one can't see anything," he told Hodgins quietly.

"That's what we told you. There's nothing wrong with this video," Hodgins replied just as quietly.

"So what is wrong with her?" Angela, who had come up beside them, asked.

"There are several possibilities," Sweets shrugged and stood up.

"Like?" Hodgins asked and raised his eyebrows.

"Maybe it was the song the girl was singing that triggered the breakdown, maybe the room. Maybe the outfit the girl wears. Or, and that is the most likely option, Cam knows that girl and has a very strong attachment to her," the psychologist explained.

"She didn't react that extreme when we found Dr. Welton and he was the love of her life. Really, _nothing_ compared to this," Angela said and pointed to the sleeping Cam, who was still tossing and turning.

"I honestly think that while she once loved Dr. Welton she loved Michelle more than him and that's what probably made him the love of her life. I'm nearly sure, Cam knows that girl and can tell us who she is," Sweets nodded and walked to the door. "I have an appointment now, but call me when Cam wakes up," he added and left.

"What he says makes sense," Hodgins nodded with a pensive look on his face.

"Yeah," Angela nodded and spread the blanket that lay by the armrest over her sleeping boss.

~*~

"You were really unfriendly to the old man," Brennan said to Booth and broke the silence that had been stretching between them while the y drove back to the Institute.

"He pissed me off with his nagging about teenagers destroying the garden. Maybe if he would have paid more attention the girl would still be alive," he replied, his voice still shaking with anger

"You know that the garden wasn't the crime scene, not even the place where the remains were set on fire. It's just the place where the murderer tried to get rid of the evidence," she tried to reason with him.

"Maybe we should go back and look around the garden again," Booth said and did a U-turn before she could reply.

"You're understandably worried about Cam, "she said when silence threatened to spread again.

"I have never seen her like this. I have seen her angry, sad, scared, crying, breaking down, slamming doors and even getting into a fist fight, but I have never seen her like this," he replied quietly.

"She is very professional and I am convinced that she will be able to tell us what happened very soon," Brennan replied, reached over and gave his right arm a squeeze.

"You know, Bones, not everyone is able to compartmentalize as good as you. She will be out of it for a while," he said convinced and parked the car beside the entrance to the garden. They both got out of the car and Booth led the way and pushed the door open.

"What are we looking for Booth? Our teams collected all the evidence," she said but Booth wandered off, obviously knowing what he was doing.

"I want to see which way the murderer took from here to the trashcans or the other way round," he replied and found a small path behind the bushes, which led, in the right direction.

"Mrs. Broder said that her kids sometimes used a shortcut to get to the garden," Brennan replied, speaking out loud the info that had led Booth back to the garden. She stayed back and let him wander round the bushes while she looked around the garden.

Hodgins had found several particulates of plants and trees mixed with the remains, but so far they had all come from the garden. She looked over to the spot where the remains had been found. It was just a brown spot in the middle of the grass now, several other brown spots lined up beside it where the soil samples had been taken.

There was a swing on the other corner of the garden, a bench, and a slide. It was beautiful out here and she guessed that many neighbors came here in summer when it wasn't as chilly anymore.

"Bones!" she suddenly heard Booth call and hurried over to him, found him crouched over a bush.

"Have you found something?" she asked.

"Yeah, can you give me one of the evidence bags you always carry around with you?" he asked and she nodded, but first handed him a glove. Carefully he pulled something out of the branches of the bush, it glistened in the light.

"It's a necklace," she said when he bagged it and took it from his hand.

"It's ripped," he said and pointed to the damaged necklace.

"The pendant is slightly burned around the edges," Brennan observed and held the bag up into the light so she could see better.

"It's a golden hand," he said when he made out the form and Brennan nodded.

~*~

"How is she?" Booth asked when they entered Angela's office and made his way to Cam.

"She fell asleep, if that's progress," Hodgins replied, closed his book and placed it on the table.

"Hodgins can you analyze this necklace for particulates?" Brennan asked and handed him the bag.

"Evidence?" he asked and inspected the necklace in the bag.

"We went back to the garden and found it in one of the bushes by the path that leads to the dumpster," Booth replied and stroked absentmindedly over Cams shoulder and arm.

"Golden necklace with a golden hand as a pendant?" Angela asked and walked up to them from behind her computers.

"How do you know that?" Brennan asked surprised.

"That's the necklace the girl is wearing in the first two videos I was able to recover," Angela replied and then sighed deeply. "So it's really her." Brennan and Booth nodded.

"Can you show me the videos?" Brennan asked then and Angela nodded. Without turning on the sound she showed her friend the first video and then played a second one.

"What is she singing this time?" Booth asked from the couch.

"_Because of you_ by _Kelly Clarkson_," Angela replied. "The video is not as old, recorded in 2004, different room," she added.

_I will not make the same mistakes that you did. I will not let myself cause my heart so much misery. I will not break the way you did you fell so hard. I've learned the hard way to never let it get that far._

"That is the song you were talking about a while ago, right Booth? I looked it up later but I have never heard it until now," Brennan said and Booth smiled proudly.

"Do you look everything up I say?" he asked, the smile firmly in place while she just ignored his comment and watched the video again.

_I watched you die, I heard you cry every night in your sleep. I was so young you should have known better than to lean on me. You never thought of anyone else you just saw your pain.  
And now I cry in the middle of the night for the same, damn thing. Because of you - I never stray too far from the sidewalk. Because of you - I learned to play on the safe side so I don't get hurt. Because of you - I try my hardest just to forget everything. Because of you - I don't know how to let anyone else in. Because of you - I'm ashamed of my life because it's empty.  
Because of you - I am afraid._

The girl stopped singing and Angela stopped the video.

A short silence followed while they all looked worriedly in Cam's direction. As if she felt their eyes on her she stirred and opened her eyes. She blinked, then looked confused around the room, and then looked down on herself, finding herself lying on the couch in Angela's office.

"What am I doing on this couch?" she asked and sat up, pushed the blanket off herself.

"You don't remember?" Booth asked worriedly and sat down beside her, tried to pull her close but she moved away from him.

"No, I usually don't nap here. Or anywhere else in the Institute for that matter," she said and wrinkled her forehead, tried to remember what happened.

"We showed you a video I was able to recover. It shows the victim singing a song and you blacked out," Angela told her truthfully and Cam's eyes widened for a moment, then she breathed out slowly and got up, standing on wobbly legs.

"Huh, seems I forgot to eat something that morning. I should do that now," she said and tried to smile. The others looked confused at each other and not only Booth and Angela had picked up on the fact that she was lying. Even Brennan knew that she wasn't honest, the panic flickering in Cam's eyes still was a clear indication for that.

"Ok, then I, uhm, gonna go and analyze the necklace," Hodgins broke the uneasy silence and got up as well.

"What necklace?" Cam asked, a frantic undertone in her voice.

"The necklace Booth and Brennan found when they went back to the garden where the remains were found," he said, stepped closer to her and held up the evidence bag for her to see. She took it from him, looked at it and for a moment he thought she was going to black out again. She paled even more but then caught herself and handed him the bag back with shaky fingers.

"It belonged to the girl in the video, she's wearing it. I am positive that we will identify the remains as the girl," Brennan said analytically. Just a second later Cam bolted from the room, crashed with her shoulder against the doorframe but didn't stop. Hodgins was quick to run after her and stopped her with one hand before she could lock the bathroom door in her office behind her. When he entered she had already dropped to her knees and was retching heavily. He heard the others coming and decided to give Cam at least a bit of privacy. He closed the door behind him and locked it before he walked to the sink and filled a glass with tap water so she could rinse her mouth once she was done.

**TBC**


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks to Kim for betaing!

* * *

**Chapter 3: Dirty Diana**

"I called Sweets," Angela told him when he emerged from the bathroom a while later. Cam had sent him out so she could freshen up.

"He said this could happen," Hodgins shrugged and his face showed the disapproval he felt. He had seen the panic in Cam's eyes for the second time now. He knew that panic, felt it every time he thought about the time he had been buried by the gravedigger. And the thought that all of his colleagues would see him like this and Sweets trying to help him didn't feel right. So he figured that Cam would appreciate a bit of privacy. He didn't know what made her panic like that, but her reaction earlier showed that she didn't want to talk about it and he was ok with that. He didn't want to talk about his nightmares either.

"Jack, whatever is wrong with her she needs some help," Angela said, knowing where he was coming from.

"Maybe she just needs some time to herself to deal with whatever is wrong and then she'll be fine," he argued back.

"Yeah, just like you are," Angela said sarcastically and didn't miss the anger showing in his eyes. He still didn't want to talk about it.

"I'm gonna analyze the necklace," he replied through gritted teeth and left the room. Angela stayed and waited for Cam to get out of the bathroom. Brennan and Booth had retreated to Brennan's office when Jack had assured them that Cam was fine and Angela had called Sweets.

When the young psychologist arrived Cam was still in the bathroom. Booth, who had come in with Sweets, knocked on the bathroom door impatiently.

"Cam? You ok?" he asked loudly and a second later the lock clicked and the door opened. Cam had redone her bun and applied fresh make- up. The smile on her face was still fake, but she seemed not as fragile anymore.

"My, Dr. Sweets, what are you doing here? I'm not dying, you know," she said in Booth's direction but no one laughed at her joke.

"I was here earlier when you had the nervous break-down," he replied friendly and sat down on her couch, making it clear he wasn't leaving again.

"I had no break-down, I forgot to eat," she rolled her eyes at him and took an apple out of her desk drawer and bit into it.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Saroyan, but we both know you're lying," Sweets insisted. Immediately Cam became angry and just wanted to wipe that smart-ass look off his face. Before she could say something though Booth spoke.

"Who is the girl in the video, Camille?" he came straight to the point and surprised Sweets.

"How should I know?" she shrugged.

"Don't lie to me, Cam, I'm one of your oldest friends. Who is she and why is this video freaking you out so much?" he pressed and walked towards her. He stood so close that he was clearly invading her personal space, but she didn't step back. Instead she raised her head and looked him straight in the eyes.

"I don't know who that girl is and I just forgot to eat," she repeated without breaking the eye contact.

"You are lying," Booth said again, pronouncing each word clearly.

"I don't need to justify myself to you, Seeley. Believe whatever you want," she shrugged and turned around sat down on her desk chair.

"You need to talk about it, Dr. Saroyan," Sweets spoke up again. "Not only to help with the investigation but also so you can get over it."

"Sweets, if you want to treat me for an eating disorder: This was a onetime thing and it has nothing to do with the investigation. Speaking of which: Why don't you all go and do your job so I can do mine?" she asked pointedly and Angela, who had been quiet so far, sighed loudly.

"You know, whatever this is, it will come around and bite you in the ass, Cam. Ask Jack, he should know what I'm talking about," Angela said and left the office.

"You two: Out! Now!" Cam turned to Sweets and Booth once again. She was clearly angry now and both men left the office. Sweets face had that "I know what's up" look again, while Booth stared grimly back at her, seemingly hurt because he thought she was lying to him. Cam shook her head when they were finally out. Another wave of panic rose in her chest but she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She really didn't know the girl. She wasn't dead.

~*~

"She's lying," Booth fumed when they entered Brennan's office. "Why is she lying to me?" he asked Sweets and plopped down on the couch.

"She's not lying to us," Sweets shook his head and took a seat. "She's in denial and merely telling us what she is telling herself. At this point she is just not able to take the truth, whatever that might be," Sweets explained with another shrug.

"So she does know who the girl is?" Brennan asked from behind her desk.

"She says no, but I know she is lying," Booth replied and emphasized the lying part.

"Does Cam have children?" Sweets asked Booth next and Booth nearly choked on his own saliva.

"I'm sorry? You don't think that.. You know she doesn't. Beside Michelle that is," he replied. "And the woman is now what, early to mid- twenties? Right Bones?" he asked.

"Judging by the examinations Mr. Bray did in the meantime between 22 to 25," she nodded.

"Cam is now... she's too young to be the mother of that woman," Booth shook his head and knew that Cam would kill him if he would tell them her age.

"Cam is 38, so let's assume the victim was 25 when she was killed, that would make Cam 13 when she had her. That is young, but biologically possible," Brennan shrugged and Booth gaped at her when she revealed that she knew Cam's age.

"Cam has studied medicine, she graduated top of her class, and she worked as a cop... That's not what a teen with a baby usually does," Booth shook his head.

"Maybe she gave her up for adoption," Brennan argued.

"Have you seen how Cam is Michelle? How much she loves that girl? She never wanted more kids because she never got over losing Michelle. She would never give up a child just like that," Booth disagreed vehemently.

"Maybe she had no choice," Brennan insisted on proving that she could be right.

"No way," Booth didn't give in.

"Maybe you should just talk to Cam's family. Maybe it's a cousin or a little sister, who knows? If anyone can help you it's them," Sweets spoke up.

"Oh my god," Booth sighed and slid down on the couch at the thought of meeting Cam's family again.

~*~

"Here, I thought, well, before it happens again," Hodgins said with a small smile on his face as he placed a sandwich on her desk in front of her.

"Thank you Hodgins," she replied but didn't look up from the paperwork she was doing.

"You should eat it before it gets cold," he added and remained standing beside her. After another moment she looked up to him.

"Thank you," she said softly and he understood that she wasn't thanking him for the sandwich but for not asking questions.

"No biggy," he shrugged and sat down on her couch. "Beside your sofa is much more comfortable than my desk chair," he said then and unwrapped his own sandwich. Slowly Cam got up and walked over with her sandwich, sat down beside him. She bit in it and swallowed the first bite before she placed the bread on the table and leaned back against the couch.

"Not good?" he asked, his mouth full with his own food.

"I'm not hungry," she admitted and he thought he saw her chin trembling for a moment like she would start crying, but the next second it was gone.

"Don't know if it'll be as good cold," he shrugged. Of course he was curious and wanted to know what was going on, but he was convinced that if she really needed to talk about it she would. And it should be her decision when and with whom she would do that.

"Did you find anything more?" she asked him and he was surprised that she wanted to talk about the case.

"I analyzed the necklace and found a small hair tangled in it most likely belonging to either the victim or the killer. I will send it over later so you can pull DNA," he said and she nodded quietly, focused on her hands. "The pendant was a small hand, pure gold, most likely manufactured in Northern Africa where women wear them as a symbol of luck. Just like the eye in Turkey, for example," he went on and again she nodded.

"I know," she said and looked up from her hands. She stared at him for a moment, like she was analyzing him. He held her look and hoped that he would pass whatever test she just performed.

"Other than the hair there were just particulates from the garden, some body lotion, perfume," he went on nervously while she still stared at him.

"The girl on the video," Cam started quietly and it seemed to take a lot of effort for her to speak at this moment. "The girl is not.... the remains are not the girl. It's someone else," she finished still looking him in the eyes.

"Ok," he nodded simply because he knew that this was what she needed to hear from him. He didn't believe it though. "But how do you know?" he asked when she didn't say anything else. He saw this as a chance. At that moment she had opened up, she had started talking about it, not him. He could see that she was contemplating how to answer his question. She bit her lip, and then let it go again. Bit it once more. When she opened her mouth to answer him he stopped breathing, started again when her mouth closed and her eyes widened when she heard some noise coming from Angela's office. In a split second she jumped up and was out the door and he ran after her for the second time that day.

~*~

"Seeley, my boy, what are doing here?" the tall, burly man greeted Booth when he opened the door and to Brennan's biggest surprise he wasn't black or mixed race, but Caucasian- white. He had a grey beard, blue eye, was taller than Booth and wore a red vest over his flannel shirt.

"Hey Coach," Booth replied and shook his hand. "This is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan, she works at the Jeffersonian," he introduced Brennan.

"Oh, I know who she is. She and Cammy bumped heads a bit when she first started working there," Cam's father laughed and shook hands with Brennan. "What can I do for you?" he asked then.

"We're here about your daughter Mr. Saroyan," Brennan replied and earned a worried look in reply.

"Oh my god, you're not here to tell me that she's... that Cammy is..." he started but couldn't get the words over his lips.

"No, Coach we're not. Cam's alive and kicking," Booth said quickly and threw Brennan a disapproving look.

"Way to give a man a heart attack, Miss," Mr. Saroyan joked relieved and invited them in. The apartment was small but clean and a small, black, elder woman sat on the kitchen table knitting socks.

"Hi Franci," Booth waved in her direction and looked a bit uneasy.

"Seeley, honey, how are ya?" she replied and smiled at him, held her arms open. Obediently he hugged her for a moment.

"I'm good and you?" he replied and waved Brennan over to him.

"Oh you know, just the usual. My back is killing me, my big toe is still infected and the new teeth they gave me are not fitting correctly," she replied and opened her mouth wide to show him.

"You should have that fixed soon, otherwise your jaw muscles will start to spasm painfully," Brennan told her, after she had looked curiously in the mouth of the woman.

"Who are you?" Cam's grandmother asked her and didn't even sound close to friendly.

"I'm Dr. Temperance Brennan, I'm a forensic anthropologist at the Jeffersonian Institute, "Brennan replied.

"Oh so you're working at the same ratty Institute as Camille. Another crazy one who can't keep her hands of the dead, huh. Why can't you let the past rest?" Francine replied with venom in her voice.

"Bones, leave it," Booth told her quietly and led her to the living room where Cam's father was sitting in front of the TV watching sports. While Brennan sat down Booth walked back into the kitchen and came back with three beers. He handed each of them one and finally sat down as well.

"Coach, can we talk for a moment?" he asked Cam' father.

"Just a minute, son, the game is nearly over," he got in reply and Cam's father didn't even look at him.

"Josh, please, it's important," he insisted and switched the TV off with the remote that lay on the table.

"I'm sure it could have waited another second," Cam's father replied disapprovingly but finally looked at them.

"As I already said we're here about Cam," Booth started again, when a young man burst through the door, a crying girl following him.

"What did you do now, Frank?" Mr. Saroyan asked the man, who seemed to be furious. He kicked against the doorframe before he turned to his uncle.

"Make that crazy bitch stop following me or I'll kick her ass," he yelled at his uncle who didn't seem surprised by this outburst and neither did Booth. Brennan's eyebrows had nearly disappeared in her hair though.

"Suzy, why don't you go home and I'll send him over once he's sober?" Mr. Saroyan said to the crying young woman, who only nodded and then left. "And you, get your drunk ass out of my living-room before I forget myself," he went on and turned to his nephew.

"You ain't no match for me anymore, Coach," Frank replied and stood up straight.

"Maybe not, but my friend Seeley here sure is," he replied calmly and pointed with his thumb at Booth, who waved at Frank.

"Do as you're told, Frank and leave you wife alone until you're sober or I'll stop by your place again. Got it?" Booth asked with a grim expression and Brennan would have liked to ask what "stop by your house" meant in detail, but she knew that this wasn't the right moment.

"Got it. Chill, man," Frank replied and was out the door the next moment.

"You were saying?" Josh turned to Booth again, anxious to get this talk over with so he wouldn't miss the next game.

"I was saying that we're here about Cam," Booth said again, but once again couldn't go on because Cam's sister Felicia walked in.

"Hey daddy," she greeted and smiled haughtily when she saw Booth.

"Seeley, how nice to see you. Is that your new girlfriend?" she asked, pointing to Brennan and kissed him on the lips a second later.

"No, she's not. That's Dr. Brennan from the Jeffersonian, I don't think you two have met yet," booth said slightly flustered when she let go of him. "She's my partner," he added for good measure.

"Felicia, don't be ridiculous, you know that Seeley is with cam," Josh lectured his daughter, but she only laughed but didn't say anything.

"Sorry, daddy. I was just joking," she said to her father.

"It's ok, princess," Josh smiled at her and then turned to Booth again. "So you're here about Cam," he summed up what Booth had told him so far, even though it wasn't much.

"Did she screw up? Lose her job? Oh I so wanna hear this," Felicia exclaimed and sat down as well, her father only laughed.

"We found the remains of a young woman today together with a USB drive that contains several video files. Your daughter suffered a mental breakdown when she saw one of the videos," Brennan explained this time, already fed up with the constant interruptions.

"I always knew this girl was _non compos mentis_," Francine snorted from the kitchen table.

"Why did she break down?" cam's father asked and ignored his mother-in- law.

"We don't know, coach, that's why we're here," Booth shrugged and couldn't quite find the courage to ask what he needed to ask.

"We think your daughter knew the victim, Mr. Saroyan," Brennan spoke up again.

"Really? Wow," Mr. Saroyan just said.

"We thought maybe you know her as well, since Cam seemed very emotionally attached to the girl," Booth said and took a picture out of his jacket pocket. Angela had printed out a picture for them of the newer video, where one could see the face of the young woman clearly.

"The victim is most likely this young woman, She's approximately 22 to 25 years old, 5'6 to 5'8, mixed race, blue eyes," Booth said while Cam's father looked at the picture but didn't take it off the table.

"I don't know her," he shook his head, his eyes still looking fixed to the picture. It was Felicia who quietly picked up the picture and looked at it. Booth saw that her hand shook slightly when she placed it back on the table and she had to swallow thickly before she could speak.

"Felicia?" he asked softly, hoping he would get something from her.

"I... I don't know her either," she pressed out.

"Felicia, tell me who that is," Booth pressed, but she just shook her head.

"I don't know. I'm just... it's just so sad that this beautiful girl is dead. She was just a few years younger than me," Felicia said.

"Why are you guys lying to me? I've known you for 15 years," Booth said loudly in frustration and picked the picture up from the table.

"You should leave now, Seeley. I let no one accuse my daughter of lying," Cam's father said angrily and stood up. With a sigh Booth got up as well, Brennan following him. Just before they walked out the door Felicia stopped them.

"Tell her to call me if she needs someone, ok?" she said and Josh closed the apartment door right in front of their noses.

"Nice family. They didn't even ask how Cam is doing now," Brennan muttered when they walked down the corridor to the exit.

"There's a reason why Cam avoids them, Bones," Booth replied darkly and looked at the picture again before he stuffed it back in his pocket.

~*~

"Turn that off!" Cam yelled when she entered Angela's office where _Dirty Diana _was blasting from the loudspeakers.

"I'm sorry I told Angie to turn up the volume. I love that song," Wendell apologized while Angela turned down the volume.

"Sorry Cam, we just got lost in the moment," Angela excused as well, while Sweets was sitting on the couch watching the scene with growing interest.

"I said turn it off," Cam insisted when the song was still audible. She was furious, her eyes hooting daggers at Angela and Wendell and the artist was for the first time really scared by her boss. Without another word she stopped the song.

"I never want to hear that sing here ever again," Cam hissed, still looking darkly at the two.

"It was on the USB drive. It's the only sound file so I was able to recover it faster than the videos," Angela explained somewhat helplessly.

"Give me the USB drive," Cam said then and held out her hand.

"What?" Angela asked surprised. "Why?"

"Because I'm your boss and I' telling you to give to me," Cam insisted, her voice still shaking with anger.

"Dr. Saroyan don't you think you're overreacting?" Wendell tried to defend his girlfriend.

"Mr. Bray, you're fired, how's that for overreacting? An now give me that fucking USB drive!" Cam spat and marched up to Angela, who instinctively took a step back, the USB drive now safely in her hand. Hodgins saw Sweets getting up from the couch but he knew that he would only make it worse if he would interfere. Quietly he shook his head and signalized Sweets that he got the situation.

"Cam, why don't you go back to your office and calm down. I'll bring you the USB stick in a second," he said calmly and placed a hand on her shoulder, hoped that she wouldn't attack him now because he had used her first name.

"One second," was all she said to him before she turned around and left the office, slamming the door behind her.

"Oh my god, I thought she was going to kill me with her bare hands," Angela exclaimed and placed a hand on her chest. "I have never seen eyes so full of... hate," she gasped out.

"Am I really fired?" Wendell asked just as shocked.

"People, please remember that she's still in shock. That is a normal reaction," Sweets tried to calm them down.

"Ange', how fast can you copy the data from the stick to your computer?" Hodgins asked and looked over his shoulder to the door, afraid that Cam would come back.

"Few seconds," she shrugged.

"Then do that and give me the stick," he said and looked worriedly at Sweets. "What the hell was that?" he asked him.

"A coping technique you should be familiar with, Dr. Hodgins: Anger," Sweets replied smartly and Hodgins rolled his eyes.

"But why did she attack me?" Angela asked, still shocked.

"Because you played the song that obviously triggered a very painful memory for Dr. Saroyan," Sweets said and looked over her shoulder at the copied files. "Was there a video with _Dirty Diana _in it?" he asked then.

"I don't know. So far I was only able to recover _I'll be there_ by the _Jackson5_, _Because of you_ by _Kelly Clarkson_ and _Back for good_ by _Take That_. All sung by the same girl, all filmed in different rooms, in different years. First video recorded in 1997, the last in 2004. The rest is still rendering. It's over 150 videos, that takes a while," Angela said and handed Hodgins the USB drive.

"Keep looking out for Dirty Diana. It was also the only sound file on the USB drive, wasn't it?" Sweets grinned.

"Yes, it was," Wendell nodded.

"There will be something special about that song, believe me," Sweets grinned and Hodgins once again rolled his eyes.

"I better leave before she kills us all," he said then and hurried off with the USB drive in his hand.

"And what about me? Am I still working here or not?" Wendell wanted to know again.

"You should probably hide somewhere until Brennan comes back to protect you," Angela told him, pecked him on the lips and then turned back to her computer.

~*~

"Hey, here's the USB drive," Hodgins said and placed the stick on the desk in front of her. Cam was sitting at her desk, staring blankly ahead without working.

"Thank you," she said her voice calm now, nearly defeated.

"Maybe you should take the rest of the day off, when you're not feeling too well," he suggested carefully, scared he would provoke her next outburst.

"You're right," she nodded instead and he breathed out in relieve.

"If you want me to I can drive you," he went a step further. She rubbed over her face with both hands and looked exhausted.

"I think I'll take that offer," she agreed, knowing that her head was too clouded to drive.

"Ok, you let me get my car keys and I'll be right back," he said and hurried off. He went to his workspace where he grabbed his wallet and his keys and stopped by Angela's office on his way back.

"I'm taking Cam home. You can work again in a few minutes," he told them and they all seemed relieved, especially Wendell.

"Are Booth and Brennan back yet?" Angela asked him.

"Haven't seen them yet, but maybe it's better when Cam doesn't know that they are talking to her family at the moment," Hodgins shrugged and walked back to Cam's office. He found her with her elbows propped up on her desk, her face buried in her hands.

"Dr. Saroyan, we can leave," he said and watched her lifting her head slowly.

"I just want this day to be over," she sighed while she got up. She grabbed her handbag and together they walked to his car. The drive to her apartment passed in silence. He knew where she lived and she was lost in her own thoughts. When he parked the car in front of her house Cam stared at the car parked in front of him and groaned.

"My sister is here," she said and sunk deeper into the seat.

"You want some back-up?" he asked her with a small smile and she nodded in agreement. They both got out of the car and found Cam's sister sitting on the porch together with her father.

"What are you doing here?" Cam asked them and handed Hodgins the key to her house, which he took with a surprised look. He wasn't sure if she simply wanted him to unlock the door or if she wanted him to go inside so she could talk to her family. She had asked for backup though, hadn't she?!

"We heard of your break-down," her father said and eyed Hodgins suspiciously.

"I'm fine dad," she told him, still lying through her teeth, but her father seemed to buy it. Her sister didn't. "Who told you?" she asked then.

"Seeley and this Doctor Brennan came to see me today, asked me if I knew a girl in a video," her father replied and Cam stared at him speechless for a moment.

"He did what?" she shrieked then. "What did you tell him?" she wanted to know and looked at her sister this time.

"We told him we don't know her," Felicia replied and Cam seemed relieved for a moment, then the sad look came on her face again.

"I'm just… I'm really tired. I call you tomorrow when I'll be able to think again, ok?" she asked them and accepted the hug her sister gave her.

Hodgins quickly unlocked the door when they walked down the porch-steps. When Felicia looked over her shoulder back at Cam he saw the tears in her eyes. He was convinced now that Cam knew that woman, her sister did as well and something was majorly wrong here.

He held the door open for Cam, watched her how she dropped her bag on the floor and kicked her heels off. She took a bottle with pills out of the medicine cabinet in the kitchen and then turned back around, seemed to remember that he was still there.

"I'm just gonna take these and go to bed," she said and shook the bottle. Hodgins didn't know why but an uneasy feeling spread in his gut and he took the bottle out of her hand, opened it and handed her two pills.

"Only these two, that's it," he told her and kept the bottle with the others.

"I wasn't planning on killing myself. If I wanted to do that a bullet to the head would do the trick," she said with an unnerved eye-roll.

"I know. Just remember that you have Michelle now," he said and she looked down, the sadness was back.

"I do have Michelle now," she whispered and quickly swallowed the pills without water. "You can leave now, I'm just gonna sleep," she said and was already walking to her bedroom.

"You're sure you'll be fine?" he asked her and followed her again.

"I don't know, but I won't kill myself," she replied and he felt that this was probably the only truthful answer she had given them all day.

"Ok, then sleep tight. Maybe you should stay home tomorrow as well," he replied.

"Maybe," she shrugged and disappeared into the bathroom, signalizing him that it was time to leave.

**TBC**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Take a bow**

_You look so dumb right now standing outside my house. Trying to apologize, you're so ugly when you cry. Please, just cut it out!_

"Can you see with how much emotion she sings that?" Sweets asked the next afternoon when Angela had been able to restore yet another video. It dated back only one year and gave them a better idea what the woman had looked like. Sweets was overly excited about this video and even for Angela's taste he overanalyzed it. There was no hidden message behind her gestures, no meaning behind the words she sang. It was just another pop song she had recorded.

_Don't tell me you're sorry cause you're not. Baby when I know you're only sorry you got caught. But you put on quite a show, really had me going, but now it's time to go curtain's finally closing. That was quite a show, very entertaining. But it's over now, go on and take a bow._

"You know what I keep asking myself, Sweets? Why was she recording these videos? Where is the point in recording videos and then saving them on a USB drive," Angela spoke out loud what she had been wondering about.

"What do you mean?" the psychologist asked and turned his head to look at her for the first time since she had shown him the video.

_Grab your clothes and get gone. You better hurry up before the sprinklers come on. Talkin' 'bout, girl, I love you, you're the one, this just looks like the re-run. Please, what else is on?_

"Usually when you record videos you do that with something in mind. There are holiday videos to remember the great places you have been, there are special occasions when someone films with the same purpose. But when you film yourself singing a song you don't do this just to have the video. You could just record your voice and put it on your mp3 player if that's what you wanted. Usually these videos get uploaded somewhere or they are used to contact music labels to get a record deal," Angela explained.

"Did you check the video platforms online yet? Sweets asked.

"No, I haven't done that yet, I am still working on the videos," Angela shook her head.

"But maybe if she really uploaded all the videos we would have more to work with a lot faster than waiting for the videos to be restored," Brennan, who had just entered the office told her.

"You're right. I will start looking by using the videos I have so far, that shouldn't take too long," Angela nodded.

"And I will call Booth and tell him to send out requests to all big labels, maybe they'll be able to tell us something," Brennan added and hurried off again.

"And you Sweets? You're staying here watching videos all day?" Angela asked him, the request in her voice that he should leave so she could work.

"No, I planned on visiting Dr. Saroyan to see how she is doing," he said. Cam hadn't shown up for work that day. Hodgins had said that maybe she would just come in later. Now it was already afternoon and she still wasn't in.

When Sweets left the artist's office he passed the platform where Hodgins was just getting ready to leave.

"And? Found something new?" Hodgins asked him and slung the strap of his bag over his shoulder.

"Angela will check all video platforms on the internet for the videos now. She's right, there must be a purpose behind filming them," Sweets replied. "And here?"

"Not much. Victim used an expensive body lotion and smelled like Tommy Girl before she died, cause that's what was on the necklace. I put the hair I found in a petri dish. We'll have to wait for Cam to pull DNA," Hodgins said while they stepped out of the lab.

"I'm just on my way to Dr. Saroyan," Sweets replied.

"Oh really? Me too. Wanted to see how she's doing," Hodgins said and sounded surprised that Sweets wanted to check on Cam.

"I think she might need someone to talk to and maybe I will get her to tell me who that girl is, would save us all a lot of work," Sweets shrugged and held the door open for Hodgins when they entered the underground parking space.

"Oh, so you're not really interested in how she's doing but more about stroking your ego by getting her to crack," Hodgins said aggressively, annoyed with the psychiatrist.

"You seem strangely protective of Dr. Saroyan as of lately," he replied and looked curiously at Hodgins who rolled his eyes and opened his car.

"I just know how it is to want some privacy," he said and slammed the door shut behind him. A second later he started the engine and pulled out of the parking space.

"Hey, wouldn't it be more practical if we drove together?" Sweets yelled after him, but saw only the backlights of the car when Hodgins drove away.

~*~

"Hodgins, hey," Cam said dully when she opened the door. She looked small, he thought when he took in her appearance. Her hair was wrapped in a sloppy ponytail and strands were falling out. She wore a black Sweater that seemed too large for her and jogging pants that had paint stains on them. She wore no make- up and her eyes were red and swollen.

"Hey," he replied softly and followed her into the house when she stepped away from the door wordlessly and disappeared into the house. "Could you sleep last night?" he asked her and found her in the living room where she attempted to clean up the tissues that were strewn all over the couch table and the floor. The phone lay by the door and Hodgins picked it up on his way in, saw that it was chipped; she had obviously thrown it against the wall. He placed it on the shelf to the right and helped her picked up the tissue balls, which she took from him with an embarrassed expression.

"Yeah, I slept until nine this morning," she replied and threw the tissues into the trash.

"I should maybe warn you that Sweets is on his way over, he can't be far behind," he told her then decided to do it better fast before the kid showed up and she wasn't prepared for it.

"I don't want to talk to him, or to anyone else for that matter. Why can't they just all leave me alone?" she asked and popped down on the couch.

"I guess you're talking about your family?" he asked and sat down beside her, trying not to be offended by her comment. He somehow knew she didn't mind his company as long as he wouldn't start asking questions.

"My sister called, my dad called, my aunts and uncles called. Even my drunk cousin sent me a text message," she groaned and leaned back, took a blanket that lay to her right and covered herself with it, drew her knees up to her chest.

"They are worried about you," he said.

"They are just gloating," she shook her head.

"I don't know them but judging from what I saw last night I'd say your sister and your dad are really just worried about you. You know, I don't have any family left so I know that sometimes it's good to have some, no matter how annoying they can be. When it comes down to the worst they are usually the people that are there for you," he told her and she looked at him, leaning her cheek against her knees and didn't pick up on how much he had revealed about himself with that statement.

"They were never there when I needed them, never. Ever since my mom died they just call when they need something or when there's some family celebration coming up," she replied

"You and your mother were close?" he asked and she nodded.

"She was always there for me, no matter what, helped me out a lot. I couldn't... I wouldn't be where I am today without my mom," she said and sighed deeply. "You want a beer?" she asked then.

"Sure," he shrugged and winced a moment later when the doorbell rang.

"Can you tell him to go away and I get the beer?" she asked. Hodgins nodded and they both got up.

When Hodgins opened the door he found not only Sweets in front of it but Booth and Brennan as well.

"What are you doing here?" Booth asked him and wanted to step inside when Hodgins blocked the entry with his body.

"I came to check on cam. She doesn't want to talk to you," he told them and didn't move aside when Booth tried once again to get in.

"I don't care what she wants, I need to talk to her," Booth said annoyed and made another try to get inside the house.

"Hodgins, you don't help her if you support her denial," Sweets tried to reason with him but Hodgins wouldn't listen.

"You call it denial, I call it peace and quiet," he said cynically.

"Ok, enough. Step aside Hodgins or I'll shoot you," Booth spat out annoyed and pushed Hodgins aside a moment later. Sweets and Brennan followed him inside and Brennan looked apologetically at him.

"You ok?" she asked when he rubbed the spot where the back of his head had hit the wall behind him.

"Yeah," he nodded and closed the door. When he came back into he living room he saw that Sweets and Booth had cornered Cam in the kitchen. She stood with her back to the, her hands gripping the counter in front of her tightly.

"Dr. Saroyan why don't we all sit down and we give you an update o the case," Sweets said and obviously tried to solve the situation. Whatever Booth had said to Cam it hadn't been wise.

"Sweets, why don't you let us adults clear this here?" Booth snapped at him then turned his attention back to Cam. "Damn it Camille, why are you lying to me? I am your friend, I always thought I am your friend and now you're lying to me and your whole family along with you?" he fumed.

"You had no right to inform the coach or ask him about that. I told you I don't know who that girl is and as my friend you should have just accepted that and been there for me. Instead you run to my father and now I have to deal with all those people," Cam yelled when she turned around and faced Booth.

"I know that you are lying!" he yelled back.

"You don't know anything. You don't have the slightest idea! And now get out of my house Booth before I will shoot _you. _You know I am not joking," she hissed the last part and a frustrated Booth kicked the chair that stood beside him, turned around and left her house. Brennan, who had come with him, followed him out while Sweets stood stunned and watched it.

"Sweets you should go," Hodgins told him when he saw that Cam was fighting with the tears that threatened to spill.

"Keep an eye on her," Sweets nodded in agreement and Hodgins followed him to the door to give Cam a moment to herself. "She's mourning," Sweets said when they reached the door, now surer than ever in his observation. "Grief comes in waves, keep that in mind when her mood swings from one moment to the other," he gave one last advice to Hodgins, who had now somewhat agreed to officially look after his boss.

"I know, Sweets. I call you when something happens," the entomologist nodded and was glad when he could close the door behind Sweets. He took a deep breath before he walked back into the kitchen and found Cam standing at the counter again, her back to him. "Where's that beer you were talking about?" he asked and decided to avoid the fat pink elephant in the room. For now at least.

~*~

"Booth, you're driving too fast. It won't help anyone if you get us killed," Brennan said while they sped through the city, Booth driving like a maniac. She was relieved when he finally slowed the car down.

"Sorry, Bones. You're right," he sighed defeated.

"I don't understand why you get so upset over Cam lying to us. She is not obligated to always tell you the truth. She's not religious, so it's not a sin, just immoral," Brennan said.

"I'm disappointed, Bones, really disappointed. Cam and I we've known each other for 16 years and we've been there for each other many times. Now that she is at the lowest point I have ever seen her she refuses to let me in," he explained.

"Do you let her in when you're sad or upset?" Brennan asked him.

"Sure. Beside you cam is probably the person who knows the most about me. After I woke up from my coma I even told her." Booth stopped suddenly, realizing what he had nearly let slip.

"What did you tell her?" Brennan wanted to know.

"Nothing, Bones, nothing. It's not important," he said quietly.

"See, now you're lying to me and I'm not kicking your car and threaten to call your family," she told him, pointing a finger to his face.

"You're right," he admitted. "It just hurts me seeing her like this." They were quiet for a moment.

"You really believe that the woman belongs to Cam's family?" Brennan asked him then.

"Maybe, at least I am sure that all of them knew her," Booth nodded.

"The logical next step would be to perform a background check on Cam and her family. I know she's my boss and you're friend but if we want to find out who the victim is, it could be helpful," she said and he knew she had a point.

"Cam will kill me and fire you if she finds out," Booth replied but Brennan merely shrugged. "But it is our job to find out who killed her and therefore we have to find out who she is first," Booth thought loudly, justifying the action he had already decided on. "You're coming with me to the Hoover?" he asked her then and she smiled and nodded.

~*~

"We were right, she uploaded the videos," Angela told Sweets early the next morning. "Close the door," she told him when he wanted to walk in. Cam had come in early that day and after saying good morning to everyone, including Wendell, she had disappeared into her office and hadn't come out ever since. Better to be safe than sorry.

"Do they match with the videos on the USB drive?" Sweets asked and sat down beside Wendell, who wanted to see this as well.

"I scanned the video databases online and found _I'll be there_ first. The same user uploaded the other two videos as well," Angela reported and showed him the videos on the screen.

"How many videos are there in total?" Sweets wanted to know.

"Nearly two hundred. It's not all songs though. It's also dancing, some comedy parts, most of it filmed at animation shows in hotels. I tried to make out what hotel but it seems like our girl sang in many different hotels and not only in her room," Angela replied.

"Also the videos were all recorded between 1999 and 2009," Wendell added.

"Last upload was Mai this year, _Take a bow_," Angela finished the report of their findings.

"The girl could dance as well?" Sweets asked surprised and wrinkled his forehead.

"Yeah, she uploaded one video where she's maybe 8 and dances ballet. I can't tell her age exactly because she uploaded the video only three years ago and there's no date on the video," Angela said.

"Are there any videos where she is dancing alone in front of the camera filming herself like in the music clips?" Sweets asked after thinking about it for a second.

"No, from what I saw, not," Angela shook her head.

"Are you able to hack into the account to get us an email address or anything else?" he asked next.

"Already done," Angela grinned. "The email address has the same nickname as the account singer1234. The computer is searching for other page where that email address has been used as we speak," she finished and all three smiled at each other, happy that they had found something new.

~*~

"Estelle just told me that you were in today," Hodgins said after knocking on Cam's door and entering when he didn't hear anything.

"I was going crazy at home. The constant ringing of my cell phone didn't make it better," she replied and he sat down on the other side of her desk and placed a box in front of her.

"Here, I still had that at home and thought you might need it," he grinned and she smiled slightly when she opened the box and found a new telephone inside.

"Thank you, Hodgins," she said and closed the box again.

"You're welcome. After all I couldn't fix your phone last night, even though I said I could," he smiled.

"You were totally bragging about your skills. Guess you're not king of the telephone, huh?" she smiled back at him and he grinned back proudly. Proud that he had made her smile. It didn't last long though and the sad look was back on her face.

"I brought you something else, something case related," he told her then, more serious this time. She took a deep breath, steeled herself for what he would have and then nodded.

"Okay."

"This is the hair I found on the necklace. The FBI surely wants DNA," he told her and placed the petri dish on her desk.

"Okay," she repeated, slowly took the evidence and stood up. "Can you stay here while I perform the test?" she asked him quietly when she reached her worktable.

"Sure," he nodded. She turned around and faced him, the Petri dish still in her hand and looked at him for a moment. She took a deep breath before she spoke.

"Hodgins, I am not asking you this now because I want to pull you in with me, but because I know you're possibly the only one who will understand me. You have tempered with evidence twice for personal reasons and I understood where you were coming from," she started.

"You didn't fire me," he agreed.

"I'm not able to explain what I'll do at the moment. One day in the future I'll tell you, but I can't... not now," she went on.

"What do you need from me Cam?" he asked her directly and looked her in the eyes.

"I need you to promise me that you won't tell anyone about the DNA test I'm going to perform or about the results, no matter what will happen," she said and held his look.

"I promise you," he nodded and she turned back around and started her work without another word.

~*~

"Agent Booth, Dr. Brennan, here is the information you requested," a younger agent said when he entered Booth's office and handed him a file.

"Thanks Mick," Booth replied and took the file. Brennan who had sat on the visitor's chairs before came around and stood beside him, looking into the file that he opened.

"That's Cam's dad," she said when she saw the name on the first sheet. "Married, two daughters, widower, former sports teacher, several tickets for speeding," she summed up what she read.

"That's Cam's mom," Booth said when he saw the next name. "French teacher, dead, no tickets, no drivers license" he said and turned the page.

"Wow, cam's grandmother has ten kids?" Brennan said when she saw the next info sheet.

"All the drunk cousins must come from somewhere," Booth winked at her, looked over the file and turned the page.

"That's Cam's sister, Felicia, the one that kissed you," Brennan said.

"How do you know that Felicia kissed me? Did Cam tell you? Or Hodgins? It was harmless ok, no full meal. And I didn't kiss her back, no matter what the others were telling you. Although I could have, because Cam and I were just pretending to be together at the time. We weren't even a couple, not even a pretend couple by the time she kissed me. I still had fifteen minutes," Booth rambled and Brennan looked confused at him.

"I saw the kiss Booth, I was sitting right next to you," she replied, her forehead still wrinkled in confusion about his outburst. "And I agree, you didn't kiss her back."

"Oh, you were talking about the kiss in the living room yesterday," a light bulb turned on in his head.

"Of course I was, what kiss were you talking about?" she replied.

"Nothing, no kiss, not even a peck," he mumbled and tried to find something to distract her with. "Hey, look at that. Good old Felicia was arrested twice for shoplifting," he said and pointed to the sheet

"She was eight," Brennan replied and pointed to the date.

"Oh, right," he nodded and turned the sheet. They made it through several more if Cam's relatives and their kids until they found Cam's sheet.

"Camille Elaine Saroyan," Brennan read out loud, and raised her eyebrows because she had not known that; the name had never shown up anywhere.

"Born in, student, jobs," Booth said and flipped to the next page. "Tickets, gun license.... Oh my god," Booth said then and pointed to the bottom of the next sheet.

~*~

"Look at that," Wendell grinned proudly when Angela hacked into yet another video account.

"Same email address, other account," she just shrugged and scrolled down to see all the videos that were uploaded from this account.

"It's just lyrics to music videos, originals this time," Sweets said disappointedly when he saw what they had found.

"But why does she lock them in a private area?" Angela asked, her curiosity peaked now. Her feelings told her that when someone made videos with lyrics and saved them in an area where only he or friends could see them, there must be a reason. Especially if the user had no friends on his buddy list.

"There," Sweets said suddenly and pointed to a video on the right.

"Dirty Diana," Wendell said and looked at him appreciatively.

"And it doesn't look like a lyrics video," Angela said and pressed play. Dirty Diana started to play in the video and they all watched the video with a little smile. Until 1.39 minutes in the video, then they all froze, stared with wide eyes, couldn't believe it.

"Oh my god," Angela exclaimed.

~*~

"Female, so either this is this victim's hair or the murderer was a woman." Hodgins concluded when he saw the test results on the screen. He stood behind Cam and watched her while she worked on the computer. He had seen how she has analyzed the hair, had fetched them some coffee while the computer had rendered and had seen her bite nervously on her fingernails while they waited the last few second s in front of the computer screen.

So far he hadn't seen anything what he would need to lie about. It wasn't like they had anything to compare the DNA with. What she next did surprised him though.

She used her security clearance to log into the Jeffersonian's database of the DNA codes they had stored there. They DNA of every employer at the Institute was saved there so they could notice immediately if they were accidentally analyzing their own hair that had fallen onto a corpse or evidence while they worked at it. After a scandalous mistake at the police in Europe* the Jeffersonian had taken that precaution, to Hodgins greatest discontent.

He raised his eyebrows when she typed in her own name, found her own DNA code and clicked _Compare_. While the computer rendered she crossed her arms in front of her chest, dug her fingers so hard in her upper arms that he was sure it would leave bruises.

"Oh my god," and Hodgins gasped loudly when the results showed up on the screen. Cam stared at it, brought her hands down to the desk in front of her to support herself; afraid her legs would give in.

"Kira," she whispered resigned. Somehow she had known the result beforehand. It was a 50% match. Her daughter was dead.

**TBC**

*****For nearly a decade the police in Europe kept searching for a woman known as "the phantom". She was involved in all kinds of different crimes. Homicide, drugs, mafia killings, robbery... When two kids broke into a school and destroyed part of it the police found DNA material of said woman again. The two kids swore they had been alone though. Finally the police thought about the fact that something could be wrong with the DNA material. To make a long story short, it turned out that the police in 5 European countries had used cotton swabs that were not registered for DNA testing, to save money. Now because the swabs weren't licenced for it the hygiene standarts at the factory weren't as high. The phantom that the police had looked for and had made several psychological profiles for, turned out to be a 60 year old factory worker, working in the fabrication of cotton swabs.... *headdesk*


	5. Chapter 5

Thanks to Kim for betaing!

* * *

**Chapter 5: Kira**

Slowly Cam straightened her back and stood up straight. Her hands were balled to fists by her sides and Hodgins didn't need to see her face to know that she must be devastated. Honestly, he was shocked as well; both about the fact that she had a daughter and that said daughter had been murdered. Without saying a word Cam walked over to the couch like a robot and slowly sat down. He was surprised when she wasn't crying or blacking out again. Instead she looked furious.

He sat down beside her on the couch and leaned his arms against his thighs. This was just all a little too much at the moment. He remembered when he had found out how he had felt when they had brought in his former best friend. He remembered when they had found Brennan's mother, the sister of Booth's friend, Andrew Welton. Still all of it didn't compare to this situation. This had been Cam's _daughter_. Her child. Hodgins had trouble wrapping his head around the fact.

He looked up from his hands when he heard Cam's door opening and Angela lurked inside. Her face was showing that somehow knew as well, tears swimming in her eyes.

"I found the Dirty Diana video online," she said and Cam slowly lifted her head and looked at the artist, comprehension showing in her expression.

"It's me," Cam nodded and bit her lower lip.

"Oh my god, Cam. I'm so sorry," Angela said, waves of sympathy radiating from her as she hurried to Cam and enveloped her in hug. Cam remained immobile, just let the hug happen but didn't reciprocate. While she still held her Wendell and Sweets entered Cam's office as well, their faces showing the same consternation.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Angela asked in a caring way and they all knew that she didn't mean to lecture Cam.

"I couldn't. I hoped that I was wrong, that there was another possibility and it wasn't her," Cam replied calmly, too calm.

"Your daughter is dead, Dr. Saroyan. Maybe you should go home, take a break," Sweets said and Hodgins had the wish to strangle him. Why did he need to spell it out for her again?

"Her name is Kira. And I can't go home. Not until we found the bastard that killed her," she replied, the fury burning in her eyes again.

"I will find him, Camille. Whoever did this I will find him," Booths voice came from the door and he squeezed himself in between Hodgins and Cam as he sat down, pulled her against him with one arm.

"I am very sorry for your loss, Dr. Saroyan," Brennan said, not knowing what else to say and stood beside Wendell.

"How did you find out?" Cam asked Booth and rested her head against his shoulder.

"I ran a background check on you and your family," he admitted and she lifted her head. "I'm sorry, Cam, but I have a murder to solve," he apologized and meant it.

"So you know that I signed away custody when she was eight," she asked him, her head back against his shoulder.

"To her father, yeah. It was the year we first met," he nodded and stroked over her back, remembering that year.

"Please find whoever killed my baby, Seeley," she requested and he nodded. That's when the tears came and the others had a hard time to not cry with her.

~*~

"I can't believe Dr. Saroyan had a kid when she was fifteen," Wendell said and looked at the file that Booth had given them.

"Guess we don't know each other around here as well as we'd like to believe," Angela replied and pressed some more computer buttons on the computer so the video she had just recovered would show in better quality.

"Dr. Brennan agrees that the victim was most likely killed two to four weeks ago," Wendell informed her.

"Kira, Wendell. Kira was killed two to four weeks ago," she corrected him sadly.

"Angie, you can't do this. When you sympathize too much with the victims you can't do this job, that's what Dr. Brennan and Dr. Saroyan taught me above anything else," he said and sat down on the edge of her desk.

"I know, I had to learn that as well. This is different though. This was Cam's daughter. We did not know her, but we know Cam, she's our friend and she's devastated," Angela disagreed.

"I have to agree with Angela on this one," Sweets said when he came into the room and heard the last part of their conversation. "Although some of us here would disagree because of personal experience, I strongly believe that there's a truth behind the saying "there's nothing like a mother's love for her child"," Sweets went on.

"I think I couldn't work here anymore after seeing the burned and hacked up remains of my child on that table out there," Angela said and pointed with her thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the platform.

"Yeah, me either," Wendell agreed with her and shuddered at the thought.

"And this is the second time we have one of cam's love ones on that table. First Andrew and now her daughter," Angela added. "She has lost so many people already. Her mother, the man she loved, her daughter," she summed up what they knew and for a moment there was silence in the room.

"For cam it is the most important thing now that we find out who killed her, nothing else matters," sweets broke the silence. "We should take a look on the videos in that second account," he said and Angela nodded.

"I'm gonna get back to work as well, see if I can match a murder weapon," Wendell said and left them alone.

"You know, seeing you with Wendell here at work has stirred up some issues with Hodgins again. The gravedigger, being buried alive, your break-up, Zach's betrayal," Sweets told Angela when the intern was gone.

"Sweets, can we please just focus on these videos and not on Hodgins. He's a grown up man and I refuse to feel responsible for the fact that he is still nor over our break-up," she replied annoyed and pressed play, focused on the first video.

~*~

"When will you question Cam?" Brennan asked Booth while she picked some fries from his plate. They were sitting at their usual table at the diner. While she was stealing his fries as usual, he just stared blankly ahead, deeply in thought.

"Soon. I know it will be hard for her, but I need some facts so we can proceed with the investigation," he replied and pushed the plate with fries over to her.

"She'll understand, Booth," Brennan reassured him and pushed the plate back in his direction.

"I try to get a picture here, try to come up with moments when I should have realized that she has a child, but I come up with zero," he told her what was on his mind.

"She signed away custody before you two met. And she lied, even to me," Brennan stated.

"What do you mean?"

"When we were working Andrew Welton's case she told me that she never had a child of her own and that's why she saw Michelle as her own. She lied," Brennan explained and took another french-fry.

"I don't understand why she didn't just tell me at one point. I mean what's the big deal? I have a son out of wedlock," he asked her.

"I guess it's not easy having a child at fifteen, especially in the area Cam grew up in and with her family," Brennan shrugged and held up one fry to his mouth so he would start eating finally. He bit down and ate it, chewed slowly, thinking again.

"Her family.... I met Cam the year her mother died, which means that she gave away Kira around the same time. I wonder if her father had anything to do with it," he said and Brennan just raised her eyebrows, shrugged and fed him another French fry.

~*~

"I was fifteen when I met Alain, he was… older. Like eleven years older. He had the most beautiful eyes and every time he looked at me I felt like I would dissolve in a puddle. He was my first, well, everything," Cam recounted quietly while she sat beside Hodgins on the couch in her office. A small wistful smile came to her face when she remembered. "I was wild, rebellious and never did what I was told. Alain was a dream come true for me back then. We were both careless and I got pregnant pretty much right away. I knew my parents would freak out, hell, I was freaking out, but I knew that I wanted to keep the baby," she said and looked at Hodgins to see if she still had his attention or if she was boring him with her story. His blue eyes were looking at her, he was taking everything in she told him. "When I told him he assured me that he would be there for me and our baby and he kept his promise. Still we broke up even before Kira was born," she shrugged. "When I told my parents my father wanted to kill Alain or sue him, w for child abuse while my mother wanted me to get an abortion. She worried about my future, about school and everything. In the end we decided that my mom would stay at home and look after Kira while I would finish my education," she said and was hit by another wave of sadness, sniffed.

"You don't have to tell me if it's too hard," he told her softly and took her hand in his as a supporting gesture.

"No, I'm glad I can finally tell someone," she sniffed and he handed her a tissue.

"You never talked about it?" he asked while she wiped her eyes and blew her nose.

"With whom would I talk about it? In my family we don't talk about it since my mom died and everyone else who knew me back then, judged me and not in a good way," she said and had her emotions back under control.

"I don't judge you," he replied and squeezed her hand.

"You don't know the rest of the story yet. I hate myself most of the time for it," she said upset and he stroked over the back of her hand to calm her.

"I won't hate you," he insisted and waited for her to look at him before he assured her again. "I won't hate you."

"She hated me for it," she whispered and he squeezed her hand again, not sure what else he could do. "Everything was going great until my mom died when Kira was eight. My mom helped me while my father stopped talking to me," she went on with her story. "He was so disappointed in me, but I had to choose between my kid and my father and I chose my baby. Alain was great, he stopped by and looked after us, looked after her when I had an appointment. She was a three when he told me he had to move to Europe for business. Also he had found a woman he loved and who would go with him. He called nearly every day and talked to Kira, flew in for Christmas and her birthday and flew her out when he married Jolene." she said.

"Sounds like a good father," Hodgins nodded.

"He really is. He and Jolene have three own kids now. The youngest is fifteen now, I think." she replied before she went on with the original story. "After my mom died I couldn't find anyone to look after Kira while I studied and did my work at the hospital. I had nightshifts, crazy long hours at the hospital and I couldn't just take her to university with me all the time. She needed someone who would check on her homework, bring her to school, cook her dinner and I couldn't do it." Cam's voice got a hint of desperation as she said it. "Alain flew in for my mother's funeral and he offered to take her. I tried, I really did, but after a month of failing to care for my kid I had to accept his offer. I knew that she would be loved and well cared for, but I didn't want to let her go," she said and her eyes welled up with tears.

"You did it for your daughter," Hodgins offered and she nodded, her jaw clenched.

"Yes, I did. I signed away custody and Alain took her to Europe with him. He was working as a hotel manager at the time and they moved around a lot, while he made a lot of money. Suddenly Kira was talking about ballet and piano lessons, vocal coaches and Spanish classes," Cam said with a bitter smile. "He could offer her everything I couldn't and in a few months she had seen more of the world than me, spoke several languages, went to private schools. I always wanted her back, but how could I compete with that?" she asked Hodgins.

"Take it from someone who knows: It's not about how much money you can offer your child," he replied and she looked at him questioningly. "Let's just say I would have preferred it if my parents would have been there on my birthday instead of buying me fancy gifts," he said.

"Kira loved it. All of it. She was happy. That was until I met Andrew and moved in with him and Michelle," she remembered.

"She was jealous," Hodgins concluded.

"Oh yes, she was. She insisted that she wanted to live with me again," Cam nodded.

"You didn't take her?"

"I couldn't. By then things were already falling apart between Andrew and me and we tried to fix it for Michelle. It was hard pretending for a five year old, but a twelve year old? Also Alain made it clear that he saw no reason why she should leave her school and her home. So she stayed with him and hated me for it."

"I'm sure she didn't really hate you," he disagreed with a small smile.

"Maybe she didn't hate me, but she sure was angry. She really started to act up back then and Alain and Jolene had trouble to keep her in line," she sighed.

"We got closer again after I broke up with Andrew. Until she wanted to come and live with me again when she turned eighteen. I was working as a coroner in New York by then, she went to a fancy private school in France and after a talk with Alain we both decided that she should finish her school before she could come and live with me again. That's when she started to hate me," she said and Hodgins could see that it was painful for her to talk about that part.

"At first she refused to talk to me and when she did it was awful. She said I had never wanted her and that I had abandoned her. I apologized, I explained and I begged, but it took nearly two years until we were able to talk somewhat normally again without her yelling at me. Ever since then it was just small talk once in a blue moon. She stopped calling me and I had to get all information about her from Alain. I still don't know what she studied or what College she went to. And now she's dead," she finished and Hodgins felt his heart flying out to Cam at that moment. She looked so heartbroken. He didn't know what to do and so he just took her hand again and gave it another squeeze.

"The last time I talked to her we fought. I told her that Michelle was living with me again and she freaked out. She said I never loved her and me taking in Michelle was proof of that. I never wanted to live with her but with Michelle. We both said awful things to each other," she sniffed and dried her eyes again with the tissue she still held. Hodgins didn't know what to say to that and so he remained silent.

"I think I need a cigarette now," Cam sighed next and got off the couch and walked to her desk where her handbag sat. "You smoking Hodgins?" she asked him and took the lighter and a pack of cigarettes out and grabbed her coat.

"No, but I'll come outside with you, I could use some fresh air," he replied and followed her outside.

~*~

"So we have the lyrics of the songs she sang solely for the camera on that second account," Sweets summed up the result of their work of the last hours.

"Plus three," Angela nodded.

"When were these three uploaded?" he asked and wrote something down.

"2005, 2007 and 2009," Angela replied and copied the videos to her PC.

"No lyrics for the stuff that was filmed in the hotels or dance studios?" he asked.

"No, nothing," Angela shook her head.

"Can you arrange the lyrics of the videos where she filmed herself plus the three lyrics videos in chronological order?" Sweets asked her then and she looked surprised at him.

"Still trying to find the hidden message there Sweets? Maybe you should talk with Hodgins about conspiracy theories," she laughed and did as he had told her.

"Hey you two," Cam said and walked with Hodgins into Angela's office. Angela immediately turned off her screen so Cam couldn't see what she was doing.

"Leave it on Angela, I know the videos already," she said and gave the artist a tiny smile.

"Where were you? Booth was looking for you," Sweets asked her when the two sat down.

"Out, I needed a break and Hodgins was kind enough to accompany me," she just replied, not willing to give any details about their earlier talk or the pointless small talk they had had in the Jeffersonian's garden. Hodgins had told her stories about the different plants and flowers, made her smell leaves and twigs. It had taken her mind off things, even if it had just been for a second here and there. She was thankful that he didn't pressure her, question her or lecture her. He was just there when she needed someone and she realized what close friends they had become even before they had found her daughter.

"Angela, we finished the reconstruction of the skeleton and made an inventory of the injuries. Could you give us a scenario?" Brennan asked and walked straight to Angela, ignored the others in the room like she always did when she was focused on her work.

"Sure sweetie, just give me a moment to finish this here," Angela replied and took the sheet from here where all the injuries were documented. She was surprised when Cam stood up, came over to her and looked at the sheet.

"You think this is a good idea Cam?" she asked her sympathetically.

"I need to know what happened, every detail," Cam nodded bravely and handed the sheet back to Angela and took her place on the couch again.

"Dr. Saroyan we were looking for you earlier. Booth wanted to ask you some questions about your daughter," Brennan told her.

"I know, I will call him later," Cam replied and felt Hodgins' eyes on her, knew he was making sure that she was ok. "I'm ok Hodgins, at least as ok as I can be given the circumstances. I will never get that second chance I always hoped I would have with Kira. But I have Michelle and I love her like she is my own. For a while I was even able to convince myself that she's the only child I ever had. But Kira... you cannot substitute one child with another, no matter how hard you try. She hasn't lived with me for fifteen years and still I miss her so much, every day. I always wanted her back, but not... not like this," Cam said and pointed to the sheet on Angela's desk.

"I think she loved you. You can't hate whom you don't love," he replied.

"I just wish she knew how much I love her," she replied and then looked at the others who had listened to every word. "You know, these videos she sent, that was her way to say what she couldn't say in person. I told her what was going on in my life on the phone and she sent me the song that went with it. When I broke up with Andrew she sent me _I'll be there_. I took her up on it, called her and cried about losing him and Michelle. Later she told me that she hated me for it, for leaning on her and burdening her with all my problems. She was my daughter not my friend, I didn't get that back then," she told them.

"Wait, the songs were not only songs, but messages?" Sweets chimed in, a picture already forming in his head. She nodded. "So she sent you _Back for good_ when she missed you," he concluded.

"She sent it when I moved in with Andrew and Michelle. She wanted to be a part of it, come and live with me again but it wasn't my place to decide that anymore," she explained.

"When did she sent _Because of you_?" he wanted to know

"When she turned eighteen she wanted to come and live with me, now that she could decide for herself. But I...for the first time in years I was at a place where I wasn't hurting anymore. I was with Seeley at the time and he didn't know about her. I told her I would get her an apartment somewhere and we could see each other often, but she didn't want that. Then her father and I decided that she should finish school first and then she could live with me again. She didn't speak with me for months, didn't take my calls. When I called, her father he made her talk to me, and she only spoke when she had to. Afterwards she sent me the video. Five years, only one video a year, that's all I got from her if I hadn't called her, emailed her .No matter what I sent back nothing changed. She sent the videos, usually something hateful. Last thing she sent me was _Take a bow_," Cam said and moved closer to Hodgins, seeking shelter.

"You reply with videos?" Sweets asked and he and Angela exchanged a look.

"Yes. Since You Tube I post a link in reply to her video, sent her a letter with the lyrics so she gets it, call her and tell her what I sent," Cam nodded.

"And she did not reply?" Sweets wanted to make sure.

"No, never," Cam shook her head.

"Are you sure?" Sweets prodded and irritated her.

"Yes, why?" she wanted to know, not getting what he wanted from her.

"Dr. Saroyan I'm going out on a limb here, but I really think your daughter replied to you in some way. This was her way of expressing her feelings and every person feels the need to communicate those and to get a reply. From what I've seen and from what you are telling me your daughter wanted contact, no matter how. She was scared because she felt that you rejected her and she didn't want that to happen again. She was hurt, but she loved you and she needed some kind of outlet for that. Music was her passion and those videos, the lyrics, her way to communicate with you. She replied, I am sure of that," Sweets told her while Cam looked skeptical.

"Either way, that has nothing to with the case and we should all get back to work," Brennan said then and Sweets, Angela and Wendell just rolled their eyes at her obliviousness while Hodgins grinned.

**TBC**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: No one**

"Hey, Cam, can we talk for a moment?" Booth asked when he entered Angela's office where Cam was still sitting. She watched how Angela and Sweets analyzed the videos, but didn't participate. She was talking to Hodgins who was still sitting beside her, supporting her just by being there.

"Sure. In my office?" she asked hesitantly, knowing what he wanted to talk about.

"Can't this wait?" Hodgins asked Booth. He didn't mean to offend the FBI agent; he just doubted that Cam was able to make it through the questioning. Also, she had mentioned that she had never talked about it because she feared of being judged and Hodgins feared that Booth couldn't hide his sometimes judgmental streak.

"Hodgins, I think the most important thing now is to find whoever killed Kira and that's what I'm trying to do," Booth replied.

"He's right, Hodgins," Cam sighed but looked at him with gratitude shining in her eyes. "But can you come?" she asked him and surprised everyone, even Angela and Sweets looked up.

"Sure," he nodded, relieved that he could be there to stop Booth if it would go too far. Booth didn't say anything but didn't look too content. In Cam's office they closed the door behind them and Cam sat down on her desk chair, Booth on the chair opposite to her while Hodgins installed himself on the couch, giving them some space. That way he could interfere if she needed him, but didn't anger Booth any more.

"Cam, I just… I'm so sorry and if you," Booth started but she interrupted him.

"Please, Seeley, just ask what you need to ask and don't make this any harder for me than it already is. I'm having a hard time holding it together as it is and I'm not sure how much more I can take, even if it's just sympathy," she said, her voice shaking, her hands playing nervously with a pen.

"Ok, but if you need someone to talk," he needed to get it out.

"I know," she just nodded.

"Ok, so…" Booth started as unsure as Hodgins had ever seen him. There was nothing left of his usual confidence. The only thing there was the worry for Cam that was written all over his face. "Cam, can you tell me where I can find Alain Lennart and have you informed him yet?" he asked first.

"No, I … when I saw the test result earlier I knew I had to call him and I tried while I was outside, but the cell phone number I have isn't working anymore. Maybe they moved again," Cam said and Hodgins flashed back to her freak-out earlier when she couldn't reach Alain to tell him that their daughter was dead. "I don't want to send him an email like that either. I don't know what to do," she said and the frantic tone in her voice was back.

"Why don't you give me everything you have and know later and I'll find him?" Booth asked.

"Ok, I can do that," she agreed.

"When have you last seen Kira?" Booth asked his next question, obviously trying to get back in his usual FBI role.

"Seen? Four years ago. I flew to Chicago last year where she spent thanksgiving with her dad and their family, but she refused to talk to me. It was just when I took Michelle in. Alain said that he was sorry but that she didn't want to see me," Cam admitted and both men felt the pain that was radiating off of her. _How is it possible that I didn't see this_, Booth wondered now that he saw the depth of Cam's pain for the first time.

"Do you have an idea what Kira could have been doing here in D.C? Did she contact you recently?" he went on.

"I have no idea. I know that Kira started studying in the US, but as far as I know she went to Harvard or Princeton, not sure which. Alain said that she went to school on the East coast and he would never let her enroll in anything but expensive schools," Cam answered and some dismay swung in her voice.

"What did she study?"

"I don't know Seeley. I'm sorry but I can't tell you anything but that she graduated three years ago, then moved back to the States and according to Alain participated in some shows in a theater that he didn't approve of. That's honestly all I know," she shrugged sadly.

"Is there anything else, Cam, anything? You know that sometimes it's the small things. Something she said, something that seemed strange to you…" he asked, nearly pleaded.

"It's… it's more a feeling I had, now that you're asking," she began hesitantly and both men looked expectantly at her. "It's probably nothing and it's old stuff so…. But back when she turned eighteen and wanted to live with me she didn't really ask. Usually when she wanted something she would charm me into giving it to her. It was always Alain who put his foot down. But back then she kind of begged me. I thought she was being crazy and then we both said no. I was the one who had to tell her and she seemed to resign. She didn't protest at first, the yelling came later. She just said, "You don't know anything and now I get that you don't want to know". I never understood what she meant by that but that sentence has been haunting me ever since. When I told her about Michelle living with me again she sort of said the same thing again," Cam admitted.

"You didn't ask Alain?" Hodgins wanted to know.

"No," she shook her head and saw Booth's disapproving look. "Not because I didn't care, Seeley. You didn't know Kira. She could be really overdramatic," Cam felt the need to defend herself.

"How would you describe her? What was she like?" Booth asked more out of personal interest.

"She was a hyper kid, always moving and couldn't sit still for a second. She was very passionate about her dancing, about singing and the people she loved. She had the ability to look into people's heads and was incredibly observant. And she felt with everything, was so empathetic. She always picked out broken toys in the toy shop. One time we went to a toy store in New York and there was this ugly doll and its dress was torn. I couldn't keep my mouth shut and said something like "My god is she ugly". Kira started crying and begged me to buy the doll. I asked her why and she said: "Because everybody thinks she's ugly and that hurts her feelings and then she's sad. I want her to feel loved, too, mommy." I discussed with her, I explained that the doll doesn't have feelings and in the end we took it home with us. For her birthday she invited the whole class because she didn't want anyone to feel left out. She was one of those kids you see in movies and think someone made them up to make people gush over them," Cam smiled sadly and wiped a tear away from her cheek.

"I would have liked knowing her, Camille," Booth said and walked up to her.

"She would have liked you. Probably would have made some inappropriate comments when she was older. She was always really blunt and honest, sometimes to a fault," she replied.

"We will find out what happened," Booth just said before he left, feeling the weight of the responsibility on his shoulders heavier than ever this time.

"She sounds like a good kid," Hodgins said when Booth was gone.

"She is… was," Cam corrected herself. She unlocked a drawer of her desk and pulled something out, then came over to the couch. "I've never been the kind of mom that shows people pics of her kids every opportunity she gets, but I've always had this at my workplace to remind me that there's something else out there than murder and death. Guess that won't work anymore," her voice was shaking as she spoke and she handed Hodgins, what he now realized was a scrapbook. She sat down beside him and he opened the book and together with Cam he looked at the pictures and saw a part of her life most people had never seen.

~*~

"Hey, Bones, you have anything more?" Booth asked when he walked into her office and then sat down on a chair by her desk.

"We found the manufacturer of the ax that was used to kill her and we can now say for sure that she was killed with the ax and not just hacked into pieces. One blow to the head, another one to her shoulders. But the blow to the head was already fatal," Brennan reported. "Did you find her father?" she asked him then.

"No, not yet. The guy moves more than someone on the run. I talked to his secretary though and she said that he'll be back from some tiny island tomorrow and she'll make sure he'll call me back," he told her. "Also I found out that Kira really enrolled in Princeton three years ago but has never been seen there. I wanted to talk to her law professor about her and he said he had never heard of her," Booth added.

"Are there so many students? I thought this was supposed to be an elite school," Brennan wondered.

"According to her tutor her school fees get paid ever semester but she never attended a single law class."

"And now?" she asked, wrinkling her forehead thinking about the new facts.

"I'm thinking about driving up there, looking around campus. Maybe someone knows her after all, maybe in another faculty," he shrugged.

"I'm coming with you," she decided, got up and grabbed her jacket.

"I knew you would," he smiled and placed his hand on her lower back when he followed her out of the Institute.

~*~

"And here we go," Angela said when she let the PC sort the last video into the list. Sweets was standing next to her, Hodgins next to an exhausted looking Cam on the couch.

"Now look at this. It fits, everything fits, except for this one here," Sweets said and pointed to the screen.

"What? Have you found something?" Cam listened attentively and sat up straight.

"We sorted the videos and we made up some kind of dialogue. And there's something really interesting when looking at the songs and the dates you gave us for major events in her life. You said that she sent "Because of you" after you refused to take her in when she was 18, right?" Angela said and looked at Cam for confirmation.

"Yeah, she did," Cam nodded, not understanding what Angela was getting at. What kind of dialogue? She knew with which songs she had replied to her daughter.

"Now I saw that you replied with a song called "Adia"," the artist went on and Cam nodded.

"The lyrics say: "_Adia I do believe I failed you. Adia I know I've let you down. Don't you know I tried so hard to love you in my way? It's easy let it go... Adia I'm empty since you left me, trying to find a way to carry on. I search myself and everyone to see where we went wrong_" later it says "_Adia I thought that we could make it, I know I can't change the way you feel_"," Sweets read out loud and all eyes were on Cam, who nodded and was past being embarrassed at that point. She had loved her daughter and she had screwed up, they all knew that by now.

"Now you think she replied with "My immortal", because that's the video she sent you on the official account," Angela said.

"She did. It says to leave her alone because it was hurting her," Cam agreed, her eyes getting wider.

"She uploaded another video basically directly after you answered to her video. She was sad and disappointed, but she understood where you were coming from," Angela said and pressed play and the video showed up on the big screen, visible for everyone. Kira wasn't singing this time, it was just a video of the actual song with lyrics and some pictures.

_Spend all your time waiting for that second chance. For a break that would make it okay. There__'__s always one reason to feel not good enough and it__'__s hard at the end of the day. I need some distraction, oh beautiful release. Memory seeps from my veins. Let me be empty and weightless and maybe I__'__ll find some peace tonight. In the arms of an angel fly away from here. From this dark cold hotel room and the endlessness that you fear. You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie. You__'__re in the arms of the angel may you find some comfort there, "_Sarah McLachlan's voice sang.

"She didn't hate you. She just missed you," Hodgins said, obviously touched by the song and the pictures that showed different hotels all over the world, places where Kira had obviously lived.

"I agree. I think you can take the "dark, cold hotel room" quite literal," Sweets said and Cam wiped her eyes with the tissue she still clutched in her hand.

"A while later you send her "Why" by Annie Lenox" Angela went on. "_How many times do I have to try to tell you that I'm sorry for the things I've done, _ and so on and so forth, I guess we all know the song," she said and everyone except for Brennan nodded.

"I was annoyed that she wasn't talking to me," Cam explained.

"Officially she recorded "Apologize" a song that had come out just at that time. She sent it four months after you sent _why_. Directly after you sent it she uploaded the video to another Evanescence song. "Bring me to life". "

"Again, I quote " How can you see into my eyes like open doors? Leading you down into my core where I've become so numb. Without a soul, my spirit sleeping somewhere cold until you find it there and lead it back home. (...)All this time, I can't believe I couldn't see kept in the dark but you were there in front of me (...) I've been living a lie. There's nothing inside. Bring me to life," Sweets again quoted only the most important parts, not the whole song. "What lie?" Sweets wanted to know.

"I don't know," she replied and shook her head vividly.

"Maybe it has to do with your bad feeling? Maybe something really wasn't right?" Hodgins asked her.

"Maybe," she nodded.

"Whatever it was, you next tried getting in touch with her by sending her "You are not alone"," Angela moved this along so she could get to her favorite part.

"Didn't work, she rejected me more than ever, even made fun of me," Cam said.

"She sent you this: _You look so dumb right now standing outside my house. Trying to apologize, you're so ugly when you cry. Please, just cut it out. Don't tell me you're sorry cause you're not. Baby when I know you're only sorry you got caught. But you put on quite a show, really had me going but now it's time to go Curtain's finally closing. That was quite a show, Very entertaining but it's over now, Go on and take a bow. Grab your clothes and get gone. You better hurry up before the sprinklers come on. Talkin' 'bout, girl, I love you, you're the one. This just looks like the re-run Please, what else is on?_"

"I had written her an email and told her that Michelle was living with me again, that Andrew had died," Cam admitted and for the first time the others really understood that they had been there when this whole drama had happened. Cam hadn't been any different back then, but inside she must have been hurting.

"That's why we couldn't match the date of the next upload to any event," Sweets said and smiled. Without saying anything more Angela clicked on the next video.

"_I just want you close where you can stay forever. You can be sure that it will only get better. You and me together through the days and nights. I don't worry cause everything's gonna be alright. People keep talking they can say what they like but all I know is everything's gonna be alright. No one, no one, no one, can get in the way of what I'm feeling. No one, no one, no one Can get in the way of what I feel for you,_" this time it was Kira again who was singing, with teary eyes, a picture of Cam and herself sitting on the desk behind her, a small stuffed animal piglet sitting next to it.

"Oh my god," Cam said and stared at the video, while she dried her tears and Angela and Sweets smiled brightly at her.

"We can't make her alive again, but we can let you know that Kira loved you Cam. She wanted you to be happy, no matter what happened between the two of you. She also uploaded this," Angela said and showed Cam the title of a video.

"Dirty Diana, that was our song," Cam smiled and nodded, gave Angela the ok to show the others the video she knew already. The video was older than the others and the quality wasn't too good. A little girl was standing in the middle of the living room; maybe five years old, her hair in braided pigtails. The song started and she danced around the living room, sang the song on top of her lungs with the cassette recorder.

"Mommy, dance with me," she requested and marched out of the picture for a moment, to where the kitchen was and a second alter a much younger Cam was dancing on the screen with her daughter, laughing, twirling her around.

"Oh my god," Angela suddenly exclaimed and stopped the video, surprised all the others and snapped Cam out of her daze.

"What?" she asked, wanted to know what the artist had seen.

"DDianaSK is online right now," Angela told them and pointed to the screen.

**TBC**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Far away**

"We should have booked a flight, Booth. Would have been much more comfortable," Brennan complained when she stepped out of the car and stretched her aching limbs.

"I want to have my car here. And I don't like flying in coach," he disagreed, but also stretched.

"I never ride in coach so we would have ridden in the first class anyway," she shrugged and took her bag from the passenger's seat before she closed the car door.

"You want to freshen up before we go and question the people on campus?" he asked her, feeling sweaty and gross himself.

"We're at the hotel anyway, so let's change and let me brush my teeth, then we can go," she nodded and Booth took their bags from the backseat and locked the car before they walked into the small in, in whose parking lot they had been standing. From the road Brennan had booked them a room, so they had a place to sleep once they were done with their interrogations and didn't have to drive all the way back to DC without any sleep.

An hour later they arrived on Campus and thanks to Brennan who had been there several times already they found their way easily to the office of the head of the law faculty.

"Agent Booth, I have to say I'm surprised to see you here," he greeted then and shook Brennan's hand afterwards. "I'm Professor Smith," he introduced himself.

"Dr. Brennan, nice to meet you," she replied politely.

"The Dr. Brennan of the Jeffersonian Institute?" he asked and his eyes got wide. Brennan only nodded. "It's a pleasure to meet you, I've heard a lot about you. Although I always thought you were… older," he admitted with a friendly smile.

"No, I'm not. But you're not that young anymore so I can see why you would make that assumption," she replied and missed that Booth flinched slightly and shook his head. The elder man just laughed though and took a seat beside them.

"So what can I do for you?" he asked them then.

"We thought maybe you could take a look at this picture just to make sure," Booth shrugged and handed him a picture of Kira that Cam had given him.

"I'm sorry Agent Booth but I have never seen this girl before. After your call last night I pulled the files though and I meant to call you about it later today," he went on, got up and picked up a file from his desk. "I also called all of my colleagues but no one has ever talked to the girl. The surprising thing is though that while she never attended a single class she always took the most important exams and handed in homework," he said in explanation of the file.

"How is that possible?" Brennan asked.

"Honestly, I don't know. The address on registration sheet for the last exam says that she lives on campus, in one of the expensive apartment buildings north from here. Other than that I can't find anything. No parking space, which is uncommon because all the rich kids have them, no mention in the school newspaper… I did a bit of research after your call. The thought that one of my students was murdered saddens me, even if I didn't know her," the professor admitted.

"Thank you professor, we really appreciate it. I think we're gonna go and check out her apartment now," Booth replied and got up.

"Dr. Brennan, maybe you could hold a lecture here sometime? I'm sure the students would appreciate it," Smith added when they were leaving.

"I am sure that can be arranged somehow," she smiled at him and they left.

~*~

"And did you find anything?" Cam asked anxiously, wringing her hands while she stood next to Angela in her office.

"No. I managed to pull the IP, but that went to a public library in Boston," Angela shook her head. "Whoever logged in her account checked the comments, watched 'Man in the mirror' and logged off again," she finished her report.

"But who would log into Kira's account and why? These videos have no meaning to anyone but her and me," Cam asked totally confused. She felt more and more irritated, the feeling that something hadn't been right in Kira's life intensifying. Why hadn't she come to her? Or had she tried and she hadn't listened but sent her away? Booth had called and told her about the strange law studies. She couldn't picture her daughter studying law, not at all. Then again, she was asking herself more and more if she had really known her at all.

"I saw that every time someone comments on her videos on this account she gets a notification. I was able to hack into the email account, but it was obviously only created for the video websites," Angela said. "However last log in was yesterday slightly before whoever it was logged onto the video page," Angela explained.

"So you think that the person saw the alert and then went to read the comment," Cam followed her train of thought.

"Yes, maybe we could comment so the person will log in again. If we're lucky we get a private IP this time," Angela shrugged.

"Ok, then let's do this," Cam nodded.

"What do you want me to write?" the artist asked, because she didn't just want to send out some standard comment. This had been one way for Cam to communicate with her daughter and maybe she needed to say goodbye here as well.

"Her favorite singer/songwriter was Sarah McLachlan. For the last two days I keep hearing one of her songs in my head. I think Kira would have liked it if I said goodbye like that," Cam said and Angela stepped aside and left the keyboard to Cam.

_Remember the good times that we had? I let them slip away from us when things got bad.  
How clearly I first saw you smiling in the sun. Wanna feel your warmth upon me, I wanna be the one._

I will remember you. Will you remember me? Don_'__t let your life pass you by. Weep not for the memories. I__'__m so tired but I can__'__t sleep. Standin__'__ on the edge of something much too deep. It__'__s funny how we feel so much but we cannot say a word. We are screaming inside, but we can__'__t be heard. I__'__m so afraid to love you, but more afraid to loose. Clinging to a past that doesn__'__t let me choose. Once there was a darkness, deep and endless night. You gave me everything you had, oh you gave me light. ILY Smiley._

Cam pressed send and Angela had trouble not to start crying. This was no funeral and still Cam had just said goodbye to her daughter in a way she had used to communicate with her.

"Hey, Cam, can you come with me, I need to show you something," Hodgins interrupted the moment of silent remembrance when he peeked into the room and was off again before Cam could follow him. He seemed really excited.

**~*~**

"Thanks," Booth dismissed Campus security who had opened the door to the apartment for them.

"No problem. The girl hasn't picked up her new keys yet anyway," the guy replied and dangled the key between his fingers.

"She got new keys?" Booth asked, his antennas vibrating madly.

"Yeah. About four weeks ago, last day before the break, someone kicked in her door and destroyed the lock. It was reported and so we repaired it over the break. Still few more weeks left until they show up again, so we still have the keys," he replied.

"Do you know who reported it?" Booth wanted to know.

"I guess it was her, but I can check if you want," the guy shrugged and marched off.

"Wow, nice apartment," Booth exclaimed when he saw the spacious apartment, with wooden floors, high windows and expensive furniture.

"This apartment most likely costs more than mine," Brennan nodded and looked around. "It's really clean here," she nodded appreciatively.

"I guess a cleaning lady has to be expected," Booth shrugged and found the bedroom while Brennan made her way into the bathroom.

"That is odd," Booth said when opened the closet and only found very few clothes in there. He picked up a pullover and held it out in front of him.

"Hey, Booth do you know if Kira spend a lot of time in countries of the Middle East or North Africa?" Brennan asked from the bathroom.

"I don't know, but her father is a hotel guru, so I guess it's possible. Why?" he asked, still eying the piece of clothing in his hand.

"Because there's no toilet paper in here but a small bucket next to the toilet. That's typical for those countries," Brennan replied and opened the medicine cabinet.

"Why would a young woman with an apartment like this and limitless financial resources buy all of her clothes at Wal-Mart?" Booth asked when he stepped into the bathroom, holding up a jeans and a sweater. He didn't get an answer but found Brennan looking intently at a shelf with all kinds of pills and medicine.

"Are you sure we're in the right apartment?" she asked him with a confused look on her face.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he nodded and wrinkled his forehead in the same confused way she did.

"Did Cam mention any illnesses?" Brennan asked next and took a bottle of pills out.

"No," he shook his head.

"Then this is not Kira's apartment. Whoever lived here was extremely asthmatic. There is no way one could sing or dance with this state of asthma," Brennan shook her head and showed Booth the pills.

**~*~**

"Before Brennan left with Booth she asked me to take a closer look at the remains again and test everything that is possible," Hodgins said when he showed Cam something on his screen that she didn't get yet. Different chemical formulas were written all over the screen, and she knew what they stood for but none of this made sense to her. Wendell rushed in a second later and immediately went to the PC on the other side.

"We were right," he nodded at Hodgins and the two men grinned at each other.

"You were right about what?" Cam asked impatiently and was annoyed that they could be happy about something they had found out. Her daughter was dead and no matter what they found, there was no way one should feel happy.

"I was finally able to reconstruct the whole skeleton. While looking at it I found a small hole in the humerus," Wendell started.

"At the same time I realized that something was odd about her teeth," Hodgins went on and Cam looked back and forth between them, her eyebrows slowly drawing closer together. "You know how we Americans love to get our teeth bleached and veneered and what not? The victim had none of that," Hodgins shook his head.

"Kira grew up all over the world, I am not sure she ever visited an American dentist," Cam replied.

"You said she studied here for three years already and she never once visited a dentist?" Hodgins asked.

"But back to the hole in the humerus. I examined it and it's Morbus Panner," Wendell said and showed her the x-ray on the screen. " From the restoration of the epiphysis I'd say she had it when she was about fifteen or sixteen," he went on.

"Kira did not have Morbus Panner. She couldn't have danced if she had that disease. The arm gets stiff and the pain gets worse with movement," Cam disagreed.

"You're right. We all saw the videos of her dancing and in none of those videos did she show any sign of pain or stiffness, at least not in her arm," Wendell said.

"Now we asked ourselves where that illness came from. I took a sample and found this," he said without mentioning from where he had taken the sample. "17-hydroxy-11-dehydrocorticosterone in a crazy high concentration. Years and years of medication," he said.

"Cortisone? Why would Kira take Cortisone?" Cam wanted to know. She really didn't understand any of this anymore.

"I also found several beta2-adrenoceptor agonists, systemic steroids, Methylxanthines and ketamine," Hodgins added, his excitement getting stronger and stronger, he was barely able to contain it.

"That's emergency medication for Asthma," Cam gaped. "Kira didn't have asthma."

"Exactly! So there are three possibilities now. Either your daughter had asthma and you didn't know about it. Or someone gave her the medication for whatever reason, maybe trying to poison her in a pretty sorry attempt," Hodgins said and Cam looked skeptical.

"Or this is not your daughter, Dr. Saroyan," Wendell finished and pointed out to the platform.

"Way to steal my thunder here, man," Hodgins said to Wendell. When he looked at Cam he found her frozen to the spot. "She might still be alive," he told her softly.

"Good job, but I don't want to get my hopes up yet. The DNA test said she is," Cam replied and looked defeated. She didn't dare to hope anymore.

~*~

"You really think this will help? We have no indication that Kira ever set a foot on this campus," Brennan said skeptically but followed Booth into the ballet studio on Campus.

"I just think that Kira loved to dance and this is the only dance studio on campus. Can't hurt to ask," he shrugged and opened the door to the room. Several heads turned of women who were rehearsing at the moment and one turned off the music.

"Sorry, to interrupt ladies. I'm agent Booth of the FBI, this is Dr. Brennan and we just have a quick question for you," Booth introduced them and they walked further into the room.

"Wow, FBI, did someone die?" One of the girls said and all ten of them made a circle around Booth and Brennan.

"Do you know this woman?" Brennan asked them and held up the picture.

"Yeah, that's Kira," one of the girls said and the others nodded.

"Oh my god, is she dead?" another one asked, clearly shocked.

"So you know her? I have to say so far you're the only ones. We showed this picture to nearly the whole law faculty and no one recognized her," Booth said surprised.

"Why did you show her picture at the faculty of law?" one of the girls asked and the others looked just as confused.

"Because she was enrolled there," Brennan pointed out the obvious.

"Kira doesn't study law," another girl protested.

"Then what did she study?" Booth asked them.

"Medicine of course. She's in the same year as I am, we started together," a brown haired girl with freckles said.

"There is no Kira Lennart enrolled in the medicine faculty," Booth disagreed. He had talked to the administration again earlier and they hadn't found anything.

"Lennart? Kira's last name is Saroyan," the girl disagreed again.

"She used Cam's name?" Booth exclaimed and couldn't believe it.

"When have you seen her the last time and what can you tell us about her?" Brennan asked, because he seemed still too stunned to question them further.

"Kira's a doll. She started medicine the same year I did and we met here at the dance studio again. She's by far the best dancer here. I saw her last about five weeks ago before the semester break. She's never here during the break," the woman started and another one went on.

"Also she can sing, boy can she sing. Every Wednesday she plays with her band at the diner just outside of campus very close to her apartment."

"Wait, she has an apartment here on campus, right?" Booth asked but the women shook their heads.

"No, she says she doesn't want to live on campus. She's living right outside, Macy's ave three, together with two other girls," they were informed and Booth felt like his head would explode.

"Ok, then thank you ladies for your help," he said and turned to leave.

"Hey wait! What's with Kira? Is she alright?" They were asked, but suddenly Booth didn't know anymore how to answer that. Was Kira really dead?

~*~

"Oh my god! Cam!" a scream rang through the Institute and Cam nearly dropped her coffee cup.

"Geez, why do you all have to yell for me these days? My daughter might be dead but that doesn't mean that I lost my hearing," she muttered and Hodgins had to grin about that. He followed her into Angela's office and grabbed another cup of coffee on the way, this one for the screaming artist.

"Angela what's wrong?" Cam asked and took a sip of her coffee. She had momentarily reached a state of calm acceptance. Basically she just felt dead inside. No matter what they could reveal or show her, at the moment she felt like nothing could shock her anymore.

"Someone uploaded a reply to you comment. Another video," Sweets said. He seemed to have moved into Angela's office over the last few days.

"What?" she said surprised.

"Hurt, by Christina Aguilera," Angela said and Cam shrugged. She knew that she most likely had heard of it, but it wasn't familiar enough for her to know the lyrics.

"The video was just posted as a link. It's done by another person. Whoever posted this must have been in a hurry and most likely didn't have the time to make an own video animation," Angela said and started the video.

_Seems like it was yesterday when I saw your face. You told me how proud you were but I walked away. If only I knew what I know today…  
I would hold you in my arms I would take the pain away, thank you for all you've done, forgive all your mistakes. There's nothing I wouldn't do to hear your voice again. Sometimes I wanna call you  
but I know you won't be there.  
I'm sorry for blaming you, for everything I just couldn't do. And I've hurt myself by hurting you.  
Some days I feel broke inside but I won't admit. Sometimes I just wanna hide cause it's you I miss.  
And it's so hard to say goodbye when it comes to this.  
Would you tell me I was wrong? Would you help me understand? Are you looking down upon me?  
Are you proud of who I am? There's nothing I wouldn't do to have just one more chance to look into your eyes and see you looking back.  
If I had just one more day I would tell you how much that I've missed you since you've  
been away. It's dangerous, it's so out of line to try and turn back time._

"What does that mean?" Cam wanted to know, more confused than ever. Her heart was thumping in her chest and she saw the coffee cup shaking.

"I think you know what that means, Dr. Saroyan," Sweets said.

"But Kira is dead," she insisted. She had seen the results with her own eyes. Some video was no legitimate proof and she refused to get her hopes up against all other evidence.

"Then someone who knew her very well posted this video," Angela said.

"How can we find out for sure?" Hodgins asked and took the cup out of Cam's hand before she would drop it or spill coffee all over her dress.

"We need to reply again," Sweets said.

"But let's just assume for a second that this is Kira who is sending me the video, or someone who knows her pretty well. Why isn't she just calling me or sending me an email? And then who is this victim? And why does she have Kira's DNA?" she asked the others.

"Maybe she is waiting for sign that you want her here. Maybe she knew the victim and maybe she's in danger," Hodgins said quietly, his over active mind already running through several conspiratorial theories.

"Does anyone know a song that says 'I'm sorry, but please contact me or come home?'" Cam asked and looked from one to the other.

"Nickelback, Far away," Hodgins said after a moment of silence and earned surprised looks. "What? I listen to the radio from time to time," he said, apologizing for knowing such a pop song.

"Ok, uhm, maybe we should just post these parts of the lyrics," Sweets said after Angela had googled them and then read aloud. _"This time, this place misused, Mistakes. Too long, Too late, who was I to make you wait? Just one chance, Just one breath, Just in case there's just one left 'cause you know,  
That I love you, I have loved you all along and I miss you been far away for far too long. I wanted you to stay, 'Cause I needed I need to hear you say that I love you I have loved you all along. And I forgive you for being away for far too long. So keep breathing, cause I'm not leaving you anymore. Believe it  
Hold on to me and, never let me go. _That ok?" he asked Cam, who nodded.

"Ok, it's posted. The other video was uploaded ten minutes ago so if we're lucky whoever it is, is still online," Angela said just when Hodgins phone started ringing.

"Hodgins," he replied.

"Hey it's Booth. Listen I'm calling you because we found something. If you have your phone on loudspeaker please turn it off," Booth said and Hodgins got that he didn't want Cam to know yet what was going on.

"It's ok," he just said and stepped a bit away from Cam so she wouldn't hear anything.

"First: Bones looked at your findings and she agrees with you and Wendell. There is no way that girl could have danced ballet or sang. We found Kira's ballet studio here and found out that she is enrolled two times here in Princeton. One time under her father's name Lennart, the other time under her birth name Saroyan. It seems like she uses only the second name though. She has two apartments here, one her dad pays for and another she seems to pay herself with what she earns with her shows. Someone kicked in the door to her apartment on campus. Her roommate says she hasn't seen her or heard from her in weeks. Apparently she went on a tour through some nightclubs and bars to make some extra cash five weeks ago. She's an excellent student, has lots of friends, no boyfriend. I am not sure yet and I don't want you to say anything to Cam yet, but for Bones and me it looks more and more like Kira is not the victim. It is possible however that she knows something so we are trying to find her. She might have got herself into some dangerous trouble. We'll be back tomorrow," Booth reported and hung up.

"What?" Cam asked when she saw Hodgins wide eyes.

"Uhm, nothing. Booth and Brennan will be back tomorrow," he said innocently but no one in the room bought it. They knew something was up.

TBC


	8. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8: Resemblances**_

"Yeah?" Booth answered his cell phone the next afternoon while he made his way into the Institute together with Brennan. They had spent the night in Boston and had made their way back after a breakfast and talking to Kira's roommate again.

"Hello, this is Alain Lennart. Am I talking to Agent Booth?" a deep voice on the other end of the line said.

"Yes, Mr., Lennart this is Agent Booth. Thank you for calling me back," he replied.

"My secretary said it was important?" he said and sounded like he was in a hurry or at least doing some other stuff while talking to Booth.

"It's about your daughter Kira, Mr. Lennart," Booth started but was interrupted.

"Oh what did she do this time? I'm sorry agent Booth but if she is in trouble I'm refusing to help her. I pay for her school, I pay for her apartment and that's it. I'm not bailing her out again because of some bar brawl" the man said and sounded angry.

"Mr. Lennart we have reason to believe that your daughter might be dead," Booth said, not really content that he had to tell him that way. There was silence for a moment and the rustling sounds stopped. Just when Booth wanted to ask if he was still there Mr. Lennart reacted.

"Dead? Kira? What happened?" he said and sounded clearly shocked.

"We found the remains of a young woman who we believe might be your daughter," Booth said vaguely.

"Ask him about dental records," Brennan told Booth and put her bag down on her couch when they reached her office.

"I heard that, I, uh will call my dentist and he will send them over," Lennart said and had to clear his voice. Booth was sure that he was fighting with tears. "Please tell me what happened," Lennart asked again and Booth placed his cell phone on the desk and put it on loudspeaker.

"Mr. Lennart I think we should make sure first that we really have your daughter here. Can you tell me when you last saw Kira or spoke to her?"

"When she moved out three years ago. Ever since then the only contact we had was via email when she needed money," he admitted.

"You haven't spoken to Kira for three years?" Cam asked, when she came into the room, obviously she had listened to the call.

"Camy is that you?" Lennart sounded confused.

"You're damn right that is me. Three years? I asked you about her! I gave you messages for her and you weren't even talking to each other," Cam asked angrily.

"You didn't have her around for the last few years, you don't know how she was," he replied, just as angry.

"Kira was a good kid. What did you do to her?" Cam accused him.

"You know what, I don't want to discuss this on the phone and I want to know what's going on there. I'm coming over; I'm just in Hawaii. You're still in D.C?" he wanted to know.

"Yes, come to the Jeffersonian. You'll find me and the remains here," she spat, then turned around and stalked out of the office, leaving it to Booth to end the call. She had wanted to know what Booth and Brennan had found out, but in her rage she forgot about that.

~*~

"We have another reply," Sweets said when he and Angela came storming into her office a few minutes later. Immediately Angela took control of the computer and Sweets stood beside her.

"Agent Booth tells me Kira's father is coming in?" he asked, trying to evaluate and analyze her reaction.

"Sweets, don't try to analyze me. If you want to know how I'm feeling about it just ask me," she replied annoyed, seeing through his scheme.

"So, how are you feeling about it?" he asked back.

"I can't say that I'm too happy about it. He lied to me, for years. Maybe she would still be alive if he hadn't lied and she wouldn't have got herself into trouble," she replied.

"We don't know that she got herself into trouble," Sweets disagreed. "We don't even know anymore if Kira really is the victim."

"Wrong name, wrong apartment, not studying what she's supposed to study and now dead? That sounds like trouble to me," Cam replied humorlessly.

"Ok, here we go," Angela interrupted them and showed Cam the page. It was only another link to another random video. It was only about the lyrics again. "The numbers left in the comment stand for the minute to which we're supposed to jump in the song," Angela explained when she fast forwarded the video.

_Another winter day has come and gone away in either Paris or Rome and I wanna go home. Let me go home! And I'm surrounded by a million people I still feel alone. Oh, let go home. Oh, I miss you, you know. Let me go home. I've had my run, baby, I'm done, I gotta go home. Let me go home. It will all be alright I'll be home tonight. I'm coming back home._

"Do they want to torture me? How cynical is it that now that she's here, hacked up and burned they are talking about 'I'm coming back home'. We need to find them," Cam said when the video was done and she was gone before either Angela or Sweets could react.

"She didn't even let us tell her that we think Kira send this. Sweets, I'm really convinced that she's still alive," Angela said, still looking to the open door through which Cam had hurried out.

"Dr. Saroyan is not able to deal with all of this. First she has a baby at fifteen, raises it for eight years, and loses her because she has no other choice. She wants her back, but can't, then she can but emotionally isn't able to anymore. There's estrangement, anger, and now before they could talk it out she thinks her daughter is dead, only to find out that she might still be alive after all. She cannot take this anymore," he said and looked worried. "Someone should look after her. When she reaches her breaking point she shouldn't be alone," he added.

"I think she already found herself someone," Angela said and pointed with her chin to the lab where Hodgins was just following Cam outside.

~*~

"You shouldn't smoke so much, it doesn't change anything," Hodgins said when they reached the bench in the garden and Cam greedily inhaled the smoke of her cigarette.

"Please, Hodgins, no lectures," she rolled her eyes.

"I'm just worried about your health," he insisted. With an exaggerated eye roll she threw the cigarette away, not caring to put it out.

"How did your talk with Michelle last night go?" he asked while she paced in front of the bench.

"Good. She was shocked, but understanding. I just fear she will use this whole teenage pregnancy thing against me at one point," she admitted.

"Or she will learn something from it and be more careful than you were," he said and she snorted.

"Please, teenage girls are evil."

"Oh I know. I was a teenage boy once, you know," he grinned and was surprised when he found her grinning back. It only lasted for a second, but he was happy that he had managed to make her smile.

"Alain is coming in," she said and sat down beside him.

"You don't like it?" he asked after looking at her for a second.

"He didn't talk to her. Or she didn't talk to him. I keep asking myself what happened between them that Kira would not speak to him anymore. She still spoke to me, even though most of the time it was angry yelling," she replied.

"You should ask him when he gets here," he told her honestly. She nodded without saying something and stared at her hands.

She looked up and said "I just wanted to say thank you, that's why I asked you to come out here with me. If there's anything I've learned it is that you sometimes don't get a second chance to say some things and I want you to know that I truly appreciate everything you've done for me these past days."

"No big deal. We're like a family here at the lab and even though family doesn't always see eye to eye one everything, at the end of the day you should be able to count on them to be there when you need them," he shrugged.

"Still... thank you," she said again.

"You're welcome," he replied with a smile. "Coffee and cherry pie?" he asked her then.

"I'm in. I surely need the comfort food before Alain gets in," she agreed and they walked back into the lab.

~*~

"Still no reply," Angela said when she joined Cam, Hodgins, Booth, Brennan and Sweets in Cam's office that evening. "She wasn't online anymore since this morning," Wendell added when he followed her in.

"Please don't say "she" Mr. Bray, we don't know yet who posted these last videos," Cam replied and leaned back against the couch.

"I don't understand why you're refusing to consider that your daughter might still be alive," Brennan said, in her clumsy but well-meant way.

"Because we know the victim looked like Kira, had her backpack, a USB drive with her videos, her necklace and I double checked the DNA analysis and the hair was Kira's," Cam counted the points off her fingers.

"But the evidence suggests that there are a least some things that don't match Kira," Brennan disagreed and Booth touched her arm to get her attention and then shook his head, signalizing her to stop. "What? I just think she should realize that Kira could still be alive," Brennan stage whispered to Booth.

"Dr. Brennan, I appreciate it, I really do. But I just can't… if I convince myself now that there's hope and then it turns out she really is dead… I don't think I'd be able to take it. It's just all too much already," Cam explained honestly, touched by Brennan's concern.

"If you need someone to talk to," Sweets, who sat next to her offered.

"Thanks, I might take you up on it once I can actually talk about it without breaking down or getting nauseous every time," she said and Sweets nodded.

"You want another coffee?" Hodgins asked her, but she shook her head.

"I think I'll have a heart attack if I have one more."

"Maybe we should just all go home then, it's already late," Sweets said, got up and stretched.

"You can go Sweets, we're waiting for Lennart," Booth told him and pointed back and forth between him and Cam.

"Me too," Angela said and couldn't hide her excitement. When the others looked at her with disapproval she shrugged. "What? I just wanna see him." At that moment one of the Institutes security guards knocked lightly on the doorframe of the open door.

"Dr. Saroyan, there's a visitor here for you," a security guard said and Cam sighed deeply.

"Speaking of the devil," she said to the others and didn't get up. "Let him in," she told the guard, who looked confused about her mood, but then wandered off again. For a second she thought about throwing them all out of her office, but then she decided that they knew her darkest secrets by now and seeing Alain wouldn't add much.

"If you don't want to see him, I can talk to him in Bones' office," Booth suggested, but Cam shook her head. There was a soft knock on the door and they all turned back around, facing the direction it had come from.

Hodgins raised his eyebrows, wrinkled his forehead. For whatever reasons his eyes had landed on the shoes first; Black patent leather high heels, with at least six-inch heels. He let his eyes wander up the tight black jeans and over the silky pink top that could be worn as a really short dress as well and hugged her slim hips. The V-neck was deep, a lacy bra peeking out underneath. Dark curls fell loosely over her shoulders and reached the middle of her back. She wore heavy make-up that was slightly smudged, especially around the eyes. And boy, what eyes she had; Large, dark-blue and expressive - showing confusion and maybe a bit of fear. This was not Alain Lennart.

"Kira," Cam gasped out next to him, grabbing his arm and digging her fingernails into it without realizing it. Only then did he realize who was standing in the doorway. Yes, now he saw the resemblance to Cam. But this woman was definitely not a girl anymore, as they had all referred to her. And she was definitely not dead.

"You sound surprised. I told you I was coming," Kira replied, her English tinted with just a hint of an accent he couldn't place.

"Oh god," Cam cried out, was off the couch a second later and hugged her daughter as tightly as she could. Kira let it happen but didn't hug her back. She froze.

"Uhm, hi," she just said and looked uncomfortable. Sweets, who observed the scene like all the others, shook his head with a tiny smile on his face.

Suddenly Cam pulled back, grabbed her daughter by the shoulders and shook her, not caring that her girl was significantly taller than her. "Where have you been? I thought you were dead!" she angrily yelled at her.

"What? Why?" Kira asked confused and used the moment to step away from her mother, creating some distance.

"We found a body and we thought it was you," Cam let her know, took a deep breath and really looked at her daughter for the first time. "You had a show tonight?" she asked her, taking in her outfit, "because the only other option that springs to mind seeing you in this outfit is one I don't like at all," she went on, in disapproving mom-mode.

"Yah, just outside D.C. My feet are killing me," Kira replied and placed a hand on Cam's shoulder to steady herself before she took the heels off. Without the heels she was only slightly taller than Cam. "Do you maybe have some socks here?"

"No, sorry, I don't," Cam said calmer, shaking her head and stroked with one hand over Kira's bare upper arm. "You should wear a jacket, it's cold out," she said softly and Kira stepped away from her touch once more.

"Sooo, is that the squint squad you wrote me about?" the young woman asked and looked around the room.

"Hi, I'm Angela," the artist took the opportunity and shook Kira's hand. "You really had us worried here," she added and couldn't help herself, she had to hug her. "I'm gonna go and find some socks for you," she said when she pulled back. Cam smiled, the first real smile in a week.

"Thanks," Kira smiled politely.

"Those are Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth," Cam went on with the introductions when the others all just stared at Kira and her.

"Call me uncle Seeley, Cam and I go way back," Booth grinned.

"Oh, you two had a fling once or twice, I remember your name," Kira nodded and shook their hands.

"Then we have Dr. Brennan's intern Mr. Bray and Dr. Sweets and Dr. Hodgins," Cam introduced the three that now occupied the couch and waved over when their names were said.

"Nice to meet you all, I'm Kira," she waved back and then turned to Cam. "You really thought I was dead. As in 'dead body' dead? This is the Jeffersonian; Dr. Brennan is kind of famous so the body must be in a pretty bad shape. Can I see it?" she asked and did sound more curious than surprised or freaked out.

"Absolutely not," Cam shook her head.

"Oh, come on!" Kira groaned.

"Are you nuts, I'm not showing you a dead body," Cam said and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Wouldn't be the first one I see," Kira replied and mirrored her stance.

"Oh, now I can totally see the resemblance," Hodgins laughed while the two glared at each other, then at him when they heard him.

"Where did you see a dead body?" Cam asked, her voice higher than usual.

"Oh please, I study to be a coroner," Kira rolled her eyes.

"Really?" Sweets exclaimed, seemingly excited by this information and Cam glared at him now before she turned back to her daughter.

"How long will you be able to stay?" she asked her.

"I don't know, maybe a couple of hours," Kira shrugged.

"Here are some socks. They're not pretty, but they're warm," Angela said when she came back into the room a pair of thick, grey woolen socks in her hands.

"Thank you. I'm freezing. This outfit is good when you're on stage, but for the cold D.C. night it doesn't seem the right thing," Kira replied and took the socks and slipped them on, again using Cam to steady herself.

"I think I still have a vest in my locker, if you want," Cam asked her.

"That would be great," Kira smiled thankfully and rubbed over her bare arms.

"Dr. Saroyan, a Mr. Lennart for you," the security guard interrupted them and this time there was a tall grey haired man standing next to him. He had the same piercing blue eyes as his daughter and was even taller than Booth.

"What is he doing here?" Kira asked aggressively when she saw her father. "Did he tell you to make me come here?" she turned to Cam.

"I called him because of the murder investigation," Booth said quickly.

"I told you we thought you were dead," Cam told her.

"So, I see she is still alive and kicking. Guess I could have stayed on Hawaii," Alain Lennart said slowly and coolly, but his eyes were fixed on his daughter and showing emotions he didn't let on otherwise.

"I'm so sorry we worried you," Cam said and he came over to her and kissed her on both cheeks in greeting. When he turned to his daughter to hug her she stepped away from him and addressed Cam.

"Can you please give me the vest, I'm cold," she said.

"I can show her your locker if you want," Angela offered and Cam smiled gratefully and nodded.

"Kira! You could at least show that you haven't forgot all your manners," Alain said loudly when she walked past him and wanted to follow Angela out of the office.

"Leave me alone and go back to whomever you came from," she told him and then followed Angela before he could reply.

"Didn't you learn anything?" Cam asked him, having heard what Kira had said and obviously drawn some conclusion from it.

"Can we maybe discuss this in private?" he asked back and glanced around the room.

"Yeah we should all get back to work, we have a murder to solve," Brennan agreed and they all got up and left.

"Call if you need anything," Hodgins said gently and placed his hand on her shoulder for a second before he left the room and Cam nodded.

"This about your cheating?" Cam asked him as soon as they were alone.

"Yes. I didn't want Jolene finding out and I asked Kira to cover for me," he shrugged and leaned against Cam's desk, half sitting on it.

"You made her lie to Jolene?" Cam gaped at him.

"I was desperate, I didn't know what to do back then and I knew Kira would help me if I asked her," he excused his behavior, just when Kira came back.

"You made me lie to her saying I couldn't go to ballet lessons anymore if I wasn't doing it. I was eleven, dad," she said upset and stayed close to Cam without making any contact though.

"You could have said no. And I find it unfair that you're blaming me years later for it," he replied, obviously not understanding what she was so upset about.

"I blamed you the second I could without it having extreme consequences for me. You always made me do stuff I didn't want to do, but cheating again and again and making me lie for you, that took the cake," she argued back while Cam stood next to them watching the argument without interfering.

"Oh please, what else did I make you do?" he huffed.

"Law studies? How many times did I tell you I am not interested in it?" she replied.

"It's a good thing to study and I just didn't want you to sit in basements with dead people around you all day. That's no place for my daughter," he shook his head.

"Guess what? I do it anyway. I just write those stupid exams in law and the rest of the time I'm over at the faculty of medicine. And it's a good thing. Mom's a coroner in case you forgot," she told him and fury came to his eyes. Cam chose this moment to speak.

"Alain I guess it's better you leave now. I'm sorry we worried you for nothing but this," she pointed between the two of them, " is obviously not working right now. Leave me your number and I'll call you later," she said calmly.

"Maybe you're right," he nodded with a sigh and pushed himself off the desk. "Talk to you later, Camy," he said and kissed her cheek. With another angry look in direction of his daughter he left the lab again. When he was gone Cam faced her daughter who was looking around the office and silence spread between them.

"Uhm," Cam cleared her voice nervously. "You want to drink or eat something?"

"Yeah, a glass of water?" Kira answered with a question and Cam nodded and left her office. She went up to the platform of the lab and found her colleagues sitting on the orange sofa, close to the kitchen area where the fridge was.

"Hey, where's Kira?" Angela asked when she saw Cam coming up alone, her shoulders hanging and her general appearance not too happy.

"In my office, she wants something to drink," Cam replied and took a bottle of water out of the fridge.

"How is it going?" Hodgins wanted to know and sounded worried.

"She argued with Alain and now that he's gone there's silence," Cam admitted and sat down next to him on the armrest of the couch. "I didn't see her for years and now that I have her here again I don't know what to say or how to start," she shrugged sadly.

"You remember that when you thought she was dead, you said that there was one thing you never told her and that you regretted it. Start with that. Kira is unsure what to make of this situation and she built a wall around herself. If you want to get close to her you need to tear down this wall," Sweets advised without being asked and Cam opened her mouth to reply, but then just nodded quietly.

"I should get back," she said after another moment and slowly got up and walked back to her office.

"Poor Cam," Angela sighed when Cam was gone and leaned back against the couch. "Although I have to say I'm a lot less surprised about the teenage pregnancy now," she added.

"What do you mean?" Hodgins asked and didn't get what she was hinting at.

"Kira's father? He's smoking! Must have been even hotter twenty years ago. Tall, built and those eyes…" she grinned

"Irresponsible, a cheater…" Booth went on and Angela's dreamy smile was wiped off her face.

"True," she agreed.

"How do you know he's a cheater?" Brennan asked, her forehead wrinkled in confusion.

"Kira's comment, Cam's answer, his reaction. It's obvious," Sweets shrugged and the other two with people skills nodded while the two scientists just looked questioningly at each other.

~*~

"Here's your water," Cam said and put the bottle and the glass down on her desk.

"Thanks," Kira replied and put the book she flipped through back in the shelf.

"Kira, could we sit down and talk for a moment?" Cam asked after bracing herself silently when her daughter didn't touch the water.

"Sure," the young woman nodded and followed her mother over to the small couch on the far left end of Cam's office. She kept her distance when she sat down and eyed her warily.

"I… I don't really know how to say this and I'm sorry if I screw this up somehow, but when I thought you were dead, there was something that I just couldn't live with. This is my second chance, so I should maybe change it, make it better this time," Cam started, fidgeting with her hands. Kira just watched her but didn't interrupt.

"I know I screwed up so bad and I'm aware that I will never be able to make it up to you, but I just need you to know that I've always loved you, so much. Kira, all these years I missed you so horribly and I was hurting and I didn't know how to make it stop. Every time I had to leave you again I felt dead inside afterwards. But… I just wanted to tell you that I love you, always have and always will and no matter what happened between us, or what will happen, that won't change, because you're my baby, even in ten inch heels," Cam said. The last part she said with a small watery smile and tried to keep herself from crying.

"It's not your fault," Kira replied so quietly that Cam was barely able to hear her.

"What?"

"It's not your fault, what happened. At least not all of it. You were young and alone and you did what you thought was best for me," she repeated. "I miss you so much and I always just wanted to go home," she went on, her eyes welling up. "Home to my mom," she added.

"Oh smiley," Cam sighed and pulled her in her arms. She was surprised when Kira clung to her and started crying against her shoulder.

"Don't send me away again! Please, let me stay with you. I swear I won't be a burden, just…let me come home," her daughter begged and she wrapped her arms more tightly around her, although that was hardly possible.

"You can always stay with me. Move in with me. You can even sleep in one bed with me again if that's what you want," Cam laughed and cried at the same time.

"That would be a bit weird now," Kira smiled when she lifted her head, then pecked her mother on the lips and fell back in her embrace.

"My princess," Cam sighed happily and placed kisses against her daughter's hair and her temple.

The squints, who had watched the scene from the platform and through the large glass front of Cam's office where the blinds were open, grinned, except for Brennan.

"This is not my area of expertise, but I think neither Cam nor Kira show a behavior that is appropriate to Kira's age. She's 23 not 5," she commented when she saw Cam playing with her daughter's hair while she snuggled up against her, her head on her mother's shoulder.

"No, you're right Dr. Brennan. However for Cam and Kira right at this moment she is eight. They need this unusual closeness to heal and rebuilt what they lost," Sweets told her.

"I think it's cute," Angela grinned widely.

"In the videos Kira resembled Cam more than she does now. Is it the heavy make-up?" Booth asked, still watching them.

"I can't believe we referred to her as "the girl". I mean look at her…just… wow" Hodgins laughed and his comment was met with stares from the others.

"She's too young for you, Jack," Angela immediately said.

"In some cultures younger women prefer older men because of their experience," Brennan disagreed.

"Yeah and because they get their inheritance much faster," Booth told Brennan before he turned to Hodgins. "And you stop it!" he told him, but Hodgins just smiled amusedly.

"Oh, you don't need to worry, Booth. Hodgins shows much more interest in the mother than in the daughter," Sweets grinned and Hodgins face fell.

"Hey! Watch it!" he warned the psychologist.

"Ok, before I do something I'll probably regret later I'm gonna go in there and ask Kira some questions that are case related," Booth said darkly and made his way down to Cam's office, the rest of the team hot on his heels.

"Sorry to interrupt," he said with a smile when he stepped into Cam's office, but the two women didn't change their position.

"It's ok, uncle Booth," Kira grinned teasingly.

"Cheeky beast," Cam chuckled quietly but Kira just buried her face in her mother's hair, which she had pulled down earlier.

"Kira, can I ask you some questions. Case related questions," he started and that seemed to get her attention because she sat up.

"Mom told me that the victim had a USB drive with my videos," she replied. "Could I maybe see the drive and the rest of the stuff?" she asked and turned to her mother.

"It's all out on the platform again," Cam nodded and let herself be pulled off the couch by her daughter.

"We should go and get cleaned up first. You're looking like crap," Kira grinned and pointed to the black traces of make-up on Cam's face.

"Thank you for this nice compliment, honey, but you're not looking better," Cam snorted.

"Maybe, but I'm younger," Kira teased while they made their way to the bathroom.

"Hey," Cam cried and it was the last thing the others heard before the bathroom door shut behind them.

~*~

"Are those the remains?" Kira asked when she stepped onto the platform, following Cam, the rest of the team following her, still curiously observing Cam's daughter.

"Yes, or what's left of them," Hodgins replied darkly.

"And you really thought that was me?" Kira turned to her mother, her voice quiet. Cam just nodded and couldn't say anything. She still couldn't really believe it that her daughter was alive and standing next to her. "Oh, mom," Kira sighed and kissed Cam's cheek, then held her for a moment. "You ok?" she asked when she pulled back and looked into her eyes.

"I'll be fine now that I know you're alive," Cam replied with a brave smile.

"Give it some time Dr. Saroyan, It will take a while to get over the effects of a mental breakdown," Sweets reassured her and made Kira twirl around to him.

"She broke down?"

"She fainted when she thought you were dead," Hodgins replied instead and gave Cam's shoulder a squeeze, just because he was glad that she was ok now.

"We SO need to talk," Kira told Cam before she turned to Hodgins. "Could you hand me some gloves?" she requested and he nodded.

"Just as bossy as the mother," he grinned when he handed her the latex gloves.

"Thank you Dr. Hodgins, I take that as a compliment," she laughed and slipped on the gloves before she carefully picked up the first bone. Brennan wanted to interfere at first but Booth placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a look that made her stop. And when she observed the young woman she had to admit that she looked like she knew what she was doing.

"This girl had Morbus Panner," Kira said when she found the hole in the humerus after a few minutes and even Brennan looked impressed. "How could this be me then, I could never dance with this?" she turned to her mother.

"Long story," Cam just shrugged.

"Do you know what caused it?" she asked next.

"17-hydroxy-11-dehydrocorticosterone, beta2-adrenoceptor agonists, systemic steroids, Methylxanthines and ketamine," Hodgins replied, testing her in his own way.

"That's asthma medication, but only the cortisone could cause Morbus Panner," Kira nodded thoughtfully and Hodgins smiled back proudly.

"Oh my god," Booth suddenly exclaimed and everyone, except for Kira, looked at him. "You gave birth to a squint?" he asked Cam somewhat accusingly and made her roll her eyes, while Brennan slapped his arm.

"Can I see the USB drive?" Kira requested and interrupted their banter. She had a worried look on her face and the frown got deeper when she saw the USB drive, the backpack, the necklace and the other things they had found.

"That is my backpack, my USB drive and my necklace," she said when she saw the things; she didn't even had to take a closer look. "I know who this is," she added and turned around to the remains.

"Her name is Juliana Starov. I rented my apartment on campus out to her. We met on campus because everybody was saying that we looked so alike and when she needed a place to stay I offered her mine. I never wanted to live on campus. She grew up in a very similar way, but her dad had spend his time in the Middle East," she went on and Booth was already taking notes.

"How did she get your stuff? You never took off that necklace," Cam asked.

"I always took it off for dance classes, afraid that it would tear," Kira replied and slowly took off the gloves. "Juliana had some bad ass boyfriend and was always short on money. One time I came to the apartment to collect my rent they were arguing pretty badly and afterwards we started talking. She started asking me for money but when she stopped paying rent altogether and someone told me that she was no longer studying I didn't give her any more. About five weeks ago she came to my apartment when I just got home from dance class. I had left all of my other stuff at university because I only wanted to change. I declined and hopped into the shower and told her to wait, because I wanted to talk to her and help her. When I got out I realized she had taken my empty backpack and was gone. The only things still in there were the USB drive and the necklace. I guess she hoped that I would have some money in there, but as I said, everything else was at university and I had taken out the clothes already," Kira said.

"That's why the DNA analysis of the hair from the necklace said it was you. It was your hair," Cam nodded in understanding.

"Do you know the name of the boyfriend?" Booth asked Kira.

"No, I don't. But he was studying international management, just like she did before she dropped out, same year. Tall guy, blonde hair, I don't really remember, I'm sorry," she apologized.

"Ok, I will go and check that…" Booth said and looked at his watch. "…first thing tomorrow morning. Anyone coming for some late dinner and a drink?" he asked the others.

"Oh, a drink sounds so good right now," Kira sighed.

"You're not having a drink… we'll some soda maybe," Cam immediately said and Kira raised her eyebrows.

"Next thing you're gonna tell me I can't stay out later than ten and I'm not allowed to have sex?" she asked Cam in a duh- kind of way.

"Oh god, please tell me you're not having sex!?" Cam was not too far away from panicking.

"Mom, I'm 23 years old. When you were my age you had an eight year old at home," Kira laughed and wrapped and arm around Cam's shoulders. "See the positive side, you don't have to give me the bees and birds talk anymore," she joked.

"I so messed that one up with Michelle," Cam groaned and made Kira laugh harder.

"Was that why you had the book with the talking penis cartoon?" Brennan asked bluntly and made Cam groan again and hide her face at her daughter's shoulder.

"I so wanna hear the full story on this," Kira said and grinned at Hodgins who came up next to her while they made their way out of the lab.

"Me, too" he agreed and grinned at Cam.

~*~

"So the boyfriend wasn't the bad guy, but her own father?" Kira asked when Booth told them what he had found out the next evening. They were all standing on the platform around the remains, getting them ready to be shipped over to the funeral home. The case was closed.

"He wanted his daughter to be successful but she had the wrong friends and dropped out of school. When she admitted that she had been stealing several things he freaked out and hit her with the ax he was holding, because he had been making firewood. Once he realized he killed her he freaked, hacked her up, burned the remains and brought them to the neighborhood park, close to their former home," Booth summed it up.

"I'm glad my mom just faints when she freaks and doesn't hack me up," Kira said with the same sarcasm Cam used to hide her empathy. Then she placed a hand on the closed casket though. "Bye Juli," she sighed and took it off when they rolled the casket away.

"So, did you think about our offer from last night?" Angela asked her when the remains were gone.

"You mean about the internship here? It would be great working here, but I'm just not so sure mom and I are there yet," Kira admitted and squeezed Cam's hand gently.

"I could counsel you two, help you working through your issues," Sweets offered excitedly. "I promise it won't take long. Just some trust exercises," he added when they didn't look too convinced.

"I will not write any essays," Cam immediately said. "Booth told me there were essays and I'm not writing them," she insisted when Sweets looked confused.

"You're just afraid mine would be better," Kira grinned challengingly and earned herself a slap on the back of the head.

"Hey, I doubt you're allowed to hit me once I'm your intern," Kira complained.

"You haven't said yes yet," Cam shrugged unimpressed.

"Ok, yes, I'll work here," her daughter rolled her eyes. Angela squealed happily and hugged her.

"This will be so much fun having you work here," she gushed.

"I agree, but next time you two exchange knowledge about guys, make sure I'm out of earshot. For me you're still four," Cam told them, pointing at Kira and scrunched up her face upon remembering the last night.

"Talking about guys… you didn't say anything last night," Kira grinned at her mother while the others slowly went back to their work, leaving Kira and Cam alone on the platform.

"Because I have nothing to say," Cam shook her head. "How about some dinner before we come back here and finalize your internship?" she tried to change the topic.

"Sounds good," Kira nodded and followed Cam down the stairs.

"Then let's go," Cam added and waited in front of the stairs for Kira to catch up to her.

"This Dr. Hodgins is damn cute," Kira said and linked her arm with her mother's while they walked towards the exit of the lab. "And I think he likes you," she added.

"Oh please," Cam laughed out loud.

"What? You deny he's hot? Have you seen those eyes? And that chest? My god!" her daughter pressed on.

"I'm too old for him," Cam said and waved at Hodgins when they passed his workstation and hoped that he couldn't hear them, smiled when he waved back.

"Not true," Kira disagreed.

"Five years is a lot when the woman is older,"

"Five years, huh? That makes him only ten years older than me. Mind if I try?" Kira grinned and Cam gaped at her before she laughed and shook her head.

"I'll kill him if he ever touches you. You're still my baby," she said.

"Then you better act fast before I think about it again," Kira teased.

"I'll think about it" Cam gave in and the glass door slid open.

"Uhuh! So you admit it!" Kira grinned at her.

"I don't admit anything!" Camille protested and they both laughed. The door closed behind them and drowned out their teasing chatter and laughter. Hodgins grinned to himself behind his workstation, having heard every word and agreed silently with Kira. Five years was nothing.

**The end**


End file.
